Catching Up
by Kurai-Hisaki
Summary: 5 years can change a person, and Kakashi realizes that Sakura was not the same person that he once knew. Kakashi x Sakura
1. Sakura's Morning

**Catching up - Chapter 1**

_Kurai-Hisaki_

**So… This is my 2nd story. The idea just hit me this morning, and felt like I had to write it down for some odd reason.**

**Anyways none of the characters belong to me -- and the story is rated M just in case.**

**Enjoy!**

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_BAM BAM BAM_

Sakura ignored whoever it was at her door, pulled her pillow over her head and tried to fall back asleep.

_Hopefully whoever it is will just go away when I ignore them. I just want to stay in bed all day…_

_BAM BAM BAM_

Sakura just groaned as she started to pull her blankets over her head.

_BAM BAM BAM_

Today was an important date for Sakura. It wasn't the good kind of important. She was on this break for a personal reason. She had expected this day to be gloomy and sad. It was suppose to be one of the most horrible days she will ever wake up to; but instead, the sun outside was shining more brightly than ever.

_Maybe I'll start hating the sun forever…_

"_SAKURAAAAA – CHAAAAAN!!!!!" _was followed by more knocking on her front door to her apartment.

With a growl, Sakura ripped off her blankets and stomped to the front door. She thought of what to say before opening the door. Putting on the usual "Sakura" face, she whipped open her front door and opened her mouth and snarled…

"WHAT THE HELL DO YOU WANT NARUTO!? IT'S 8 AM IN THE MORNING AND I DESERVE A BREAK AFTER …"

Sakura was really NOT a morning person, on top of that, she was just getting into the mood of her "suppose to be" horrible day.

With the usual wide fox-like grin, and completely oblivious to Sakura's mood, Naruto took a small leap towards her to give her a hug, and to invite himself into her apartment. Sakura just stood in front of the door; making no motions to move aside to let the blonde in.

Sakura noticed that Naruto wasn't alone. Kakashi stood with the usual jounin uniform and mask in place. And as polite as ever, he raised his hand and two fingers and said, "Yo."

With a shriek, the now red faced Sakura slammed the front door close, hitting Naruto square in the nose in the process, and ran to her bedroom to get something decent to wear. After all she was only dressed in a pair of black boxers and a skin tight pink tanktop with no bra under. It was something she didn't really care about since she grew up with Naruto and he was her best friend. Besides he was as dense as a brick; he wouldn't really comment on Sakura's taste in clothing or rather lack of. And if he did comment, Sakura would just beat him till he forgot. She was sure that he saw her naked enough back in the old days during missions where he would accidently just walk in on her changing, and then get punched into the next tree by her.

_Why is Kakashi-sensei standing in front of my apartment?! I haven't seen the guy in a good 5 years! The last time I saw him was where again? I can't even remember! Kami, that was embarrassing, letting my ex-sensei who happened to be a pervert, see me practically wearing close to nothing! _

Sakura frantically ran her brush through her short straight pink hair, brushed her teeth, washed her face and ran to the closet in record speed. She pulled out a red long sleeved shirt and pulled that over her head, and decided to wear a white skirt, and wore black flip-flops. She didn't feel the need to wear her medic uniform today, since it was suppose to be her day off where she was going to sleep in, and just relax at home…

"_SAAAKKKUUUURRAAAA-CHAAAN!! Open the doooor…."_

Sakura swung her front door opened again and glared at Naruto.

"So you never did tell me what you wanted at 8 am in the morning." Sakura continued to glare at Naruto.

"Well see… I was just walking through the streets towards Ichiraku's and guess who I bumped into?!"

Sakura rolled her eyes, and waited.

Naruto just beamed at her with his smile and anticipation for her answer.

_Did he actually want me to guess? Why am I doing this… let me crawl back into bed…_

"Gee… Naruto I don't know… Kakashi-sensei maybe?"

Naruto blinked at her and said "How did you know?"

Sakura pointed to the guy behind him, who now had an amused face behind his mask, and was looking at Sakura.

Naruto turned around and said "Hey! Kakashi-sensei! How come you're here?!"

Kakashi looked at him, with one eye brow raised, and shrugged.

Naruto blinked some more then his face lighted up as if an idea hit him. And he rambled on…

"OH YEAH! Sakura-chan! I bumped into Kakashi-sensei when he was on his way to the bookstore, and since we haven't caught up in such a long time I was wondering if you all wanted to go out to eat ramen together! Of course, Sasuke isn't back from his mission, but we can always catch up with him later! How often do you see Kakashi-sensei these days?! Where have you been anyways?"

Naruto turned to look at his ex-sensei, awaiting his answer.

Kakashi just simply replied "Around."

Sakura was standing at her front door staring at the two males in front of her. Sure, both she and Naruto may be 20 years old now, but it didn't change the fact that Naruto was still as slow as ever. He was still the same energetic, dense, oblivious, hyper and ramen-loving Naruto, while Sakura was the same Sakura. She was still smart, hardworking, her temper changes every two seconds, she put others before herself, gave out her trust and love to those she felt like they needed or deserved it, and would willingly pound anyone who angered her.

She also matured in more than one way, but it wasn't something she wanted to think about in front of her two guests - one of her best friends, and the other almost a stranger.

And Kakashi was… well Kakashi. The guy was a mystery and no one ever really knew him that well except that he read porn in public. Sometimes when Sakura felt like he was opening up, he would close right back up the next second.

Naruto now stood a little bit more than half a head taller than her, while Kakashi was a head taller than her. Naruto's appearance changed slightly. His blond hair was a bit longer and the spikes were more natural. He still wore his normal orange uniform, and the same wide friendly grin. Of course, Kakashi's appearance was the same as always except his silver hair now hung a bit past his eyes at the front over his hiate-ate.

Truth be told, she really missed Kakashi, but her duties at the hospital had her so busy that she never really got time for a social life. And Kakashi being Kakashi, never went to the hospital unless he was dying, and that has never happened yet. There was something about Kakashi that made her want to spill her guts out to him. Maybe it was because she knew that he would always keep her secrets, a secret. Of course, she'd never talk to him, as much as she wanted to.

_I would be considered weak again…_

Besides, it would be pointless to talk to someone who doesn't care.

Sakura looked up at her long missed ex-sensei, and found him staring back at her with an amused face.

She dully wondered what was so interesting; did she have something stuck to her forehead or something?

So Sakura sighed out, "What's so amusing?"

With a friendly smile and his famous eye crinkle, Kakashi responded, "Your shirt is backwards."

Sakura looked down at her shirt, and for the second time that morning her face turned cherry red.

Naruto once again hopped towards her with enthusiasm to invite her to eat with them, and the now mortified Sakura once again slammed the door in his face, hitting his nose. Kakashi just chuckled at his two former students.

Sakura stood on the other side of the door, trying desperately to fix her shirt back the right way as fast as she could. She ran to her bathroom mirror to make sure she was decent before going to open the door again.

_He must think I'm an idiot, what kind of 20 year old wears their shirt backwards. How is it that Kakashi-sensei can make me forget what I'm thinking, and make me completely embarrassed all in 5 seconds flat?_

Sakura hit her head on her wall repeatedly; feeling like a complete idiot. For one of the most intelligent kunoichi's in the village, she certainly didn't feel like one. In fact she was embarrassed beyond belief that her ex-sensei that she hasn't seen in 5 years, suddenly is standing in front of her apartment, saw her almost naked, then saw her make stupid mistakes that even 7 year olds don't even make, all in the time span of less than half an hour.

_What a day this is turning out to be… _

She sighed to herself.

_I blame Naruto._

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**I welcome any reviews. As for the story, I know that the first chapter doesn't seem to be going anywhere (think of it as an Intro, not really a chapter), but I actually intended for the story to go much deeper. Later chapters will take a huge turn from chapter 1. I know I have a lot of tense problems, I'm still working on that. If there's any other major problems, please let me know!**

**Thanks!**


	2. New Years

**Catching Up - Chapter 2 **

_Kurai-Hisaki_

**Happy New Years everyone! ****Akemashite Omedetou! **

**Here's to done with '08, and the start of a new beginning in '09! Have a good one!**

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"HURRRYY UP, KAKASHI-SENSEI!!" Naruto yelled while running down the street hoping to get to his beloved Ramen shop sooner. Sakura just rolled her eyes. Anything that involved Naruto with Ramen was fast, and Kakashi out of a mission was slow, whether he was distracted or not.

This morning had been quite unusual for Kakashi. He had returned from a mission, and for the first time in 5 years, he ran into Naruto; or rather Naruto ran into him. Literally. It wasn't like he never returned to Konoha after a mission, he took breaks every now and then, but he was never in Konoha for too long. When exhausted from a mission, he would stay for one or two days before heading off again. He didn't really know the reason why he was pushing himself to go on all these missions, but maybe staying in Konoha always brought back memories of his past that he didn't really want to be reminded of.

Running into Naruto would always follow with chaos afterwards, and this proved to be quite true this morning. Seeing his former student, that happened to be female, in a tank-top and tiny shorts, was quite a treat for Kakashi. He found that she was quite cute when embarrassed, especially when her face turned into the colour of her hair, and the reaction he would get when he pointed out something that was embarrassing to her. Therefore, he couldn't resist telling her that her shirt was backwards. Of course, he would have mentioned it sooner or later; it wasn't like he was going to let her walk out of her house with her shirt backwards.

Having her walking around half the village with her shirt backwards would probably be even more embarrassing; besides, Naruto probably wouldn't even notice to tell her.

Kakashi glanced sideways to look at Sakura. To him, she had changed quite a lot in appearance. But that was to be expected as he hasn't really seen her in a good 5 years. He noticed that she was almost a head shorter than him; the top of her head was up to his mouth. Her soft pink hair was the same as always, still short. She had no bangs, and her hair ran down the sides to frame her face.

He let his glance look down a bit. He would say that she had a nice figure, not too busty, a slim waist, and a pair of long creamy coloured legs that looked extra long because she was wearing a skirt and flip-flops. Her v-neck long sleeved shirt showed her collar bones. He noticed her frame was more on the petite side.

_She looks a bit thin and fragile._

She wasn't overly thin like all the other girls, who now-a-days are dying to be a bit more like models. But he guessed this was because she had to work out to keep in top shape when she was needed to travel on missions. The Sakura he knew would fall into the general trend, just to be prettier, to fit in, to attract attention. He knew that something had changed in her when he noticed that she didn't use any make-up at all. Whether it was due to the rush this morning or not, she didn't put on any. He always thought that she didn't need it; she had long enough eyelashes that framed her eyes without mascara. Her cheeks were glowing in natural tinge of pink, and pinker when embarrassed. Her lips looked as soft as always, and he could only guess that she put on lip-balm… or something.

"Sensei?"

_Damn, caught staring Hatake… way to go._

Kakashi just smiled, looked forward and continued walking like he never heard her. If he wasn't good at hiding his emotions or rather, embarassment, then Tsunade can't punch someone through five walls.

_Why do they still call me sensei? I haven't been their sensei in years. Why did I look at Sakura like that... There's something different or odd about her today... Is it because she changed into someone that I haven't seen in a while, yet have known for so long? Is it the outfit she wore when she opened the door? _

Kakashi kept walking deep in thought.

_Aw hell, too much Icha Icha._

"Sensei!"

He heard Sakura's voice call him again, and he turned sideways to look at her; except she wasn't there.

"Sensei!! Where are you going?"

He turned backwards and found that Naruto and Sakura had already reach Ichiraku's, which was a good few meters behind him. He walked past without knowing. Sakura waved him over with an annoyed look on her face, and he walked towards her with his right hand scratching the back of his head and the other in his pocket.

With a sheepish laugh, he said "I was deep in thought… about… the purpose of life…"

Naruto just turns around in his stool to his best friend and ex-sensei, and yells, "LIAR!" to Kakashi, then turns back around to order his usual meal of 7 bowls of ramen. Sakura just looks at Kakashi with one eyebrow raised; gave him an accusing look, and with a shrug she took her seat on the right of Naruto.

Kakashi put his right hand down, took his left out of his pocket and took a seat on the left of Naruto. He wasn't too fond of sitting beside Naruto when he was shoving his face with 7 bowls of ramen, and spraying half of his meal at Kakashi's face when he was talking; but he also didn't want to give himself another excuse to look at Sakura even more and get caught again. After Kakashi and Sakura ordered, the three fell into a comfortable silence while eating their meals. A short lived silence.

Naruto spoke up first, "I know there's something important today, and I had to tell you guys about it…"

He paused, frowned a little and made a face as if he was thinking hard. Kakashi and Sakura looked over at him, waiting for his answer.

Naruto continued, "… I just can't remember what it was…"

Sakura reached over and slapped him over the head. Naruto landed face first straight into his bowl of ramen. He lifted his head, which was now covered in noodles.

He pretended to be sad, and whimpered to Sakura, "That's not nice Sakura-Chan …" He continued to sniffle, until his face suddenly brightened up and he whispered to Sakura, "Hey! This is our chance to see Kakashi-Sensei's face!" Sakura rolled her eyes, and finished her meal. Naruto turned around to Kakashi only to find that he finished his meal during all the commotion.

Naruto yelled at Kakashi while spraying his food at him, "AWWW!! I MISSED IT AGAIN!"

Kakashi just sat listening to Sakura and Naruto talk. He had to admit, it was nice to see his former students again. He missed seeing them fight. It always seems to amuse him.

"Hey! Forehead!"

Kakashi recognized this familiar face that was now jogging towards them. She was one of Asuma's previous students.

Sakura turned around to see the blue eyed blonde running towards her.

"What are you doing here stuffing yourself with ramen?! You're not going to fit in your dress if you keep stuffing yourself! Did you forget about the New Year's party tonight at the bar?"

Naruto's head snapped up and looked at the girls.

"Oh yeah!!! I remember what I was going to say now! The New Year's Countdown Party is tonight! It starts at 7! Mou… I knew I was forgetting… Something… important…"

Naruto trailed off and went back to eating his fourth bowl of ramen.

Sakura looked confused and responded, "What dress? What party…" She looked like the last thing she wanted to do was party.

Now it was Ino's turn to slap Sakura across the back of the head. Ino, brushed her bangs out of her right eye, and poked Sakura with her right hand; while her left hand remained on her hips.

"Today is New Year's Eve, have you been working so hard that you totally lost track of time? Get a social life! Why do you think you have a break today anyways? You don't usually just get a break in the middle of the week! As for the dress… I have the perfect one for you! I can't wait to let you see it and wear it! You are going to love it or totally kill me for it... but it's a chance I'm willing to take! Hurry up!"

With a squeal Ino dragged Sakura out of the shop and down the street towards her house. Sakura didn't even have a chance to protest or get any word in for that matter. With a whirlwind of dust kicked up at Kakashi and Naruto, the two girls disappeared out of sight.

Kakashi looked at the clock on the wall. It was now close to 12 pm, and the party was tonight. Naruto had said that it started at 7 pm. He wasn't planning to go, but now that he thought about it; he couldn't resist going to see how Sakura was going to walk in heels. He wasn't going to pass up another opportunity to make her embarrassed. It was kind of cute, in a Sakura way. Besides he needed to relax after a couple years of missions.

He figured he had plenty of time to go to the bookstore to pick up what he wanted this morning, go home, freshen up and catch up on his reading. He waited for Naruto to dig into his ramen again and Kakashi made his escape.

When Naruto was finally done, he looked up to see that Sakura had left, so he turned to his other side and said, "Kakashi-sense…" Naruto looked to his right, then left again. He smacked his own head on the table, and thought…

_Friggin'… KAKASHI-SENSEI DITCHED ME WITH THE BILL… AGAIN!_

* * *

Kakashi lounged around on his worn black leather couch, in his apartment reading his book till it was almost time to go. He already showered and got dressed hours before just so he could spend some time reading. He was dressed in a simple black long sleeved shirt, black dress pants, his usual mask, and hiate-ate to cover his Sharingan. He didn't bother to check himself in the mirror, as he didn't really care what people thought or said about him, and he headed out the door. It was now 8:30pm.

By the time Kakashi arrived at the bar, a quarter of the people were already half-drunk. He estimated that there were a little bit over hundred people in this little bar, and most of the people were in the back of the bar, where there was a dance floor. He noticed that most of the Rookie Nine, including Lee, Tenten and Neji were at the back of the bar, sitting around and just chatting over drinks. But the normal bright haired student of his was no where near them. He also noticed that the usual Uchiha was not with them either. He figured Sasuke hasn't returned from his mission yet from this morning.

Being a Shinobi was a full time job, and sometimes they don't even get Christmas off. After all, protecting civilians and country don't wait until after the Holidays are over. Kakashi was thankful to be home for the New Years; he already missed Christmas here with his friends, and hasn't visited his loved ones in a while.

Kakashi looked up to the ceiling silently, closed his eyes and blocked out the noise around him.

_How are you now… Obito and Rin?_

It was a little easier to think about them now without feeling depressed.

Kakashi turned to his right and walked over to a seat on one of the stools and ordered a bottle of Sake. Genma walked up to him and swung one of his arms around his shoulders.

"Well, well… if it isn't the copy ninja! So you do socialize! So what brings you here?" With a grin, Genma patted his shoulders and took a seat beside Kakashi.

"Shut up, I figured I might as well come since it is the New Year, and it's rare that I'm in town."

_There is no way in hell, I'm telling Genma that part of the reason I'm here is to catch Sakura in a pretty dress and heels. I sound like a pervert even to myself. _

Kakashi sighed. Just thinking about that made Kakashi's stomach feel a bit uneasy. Genma had bit of a reputation to screw anything with breasts and legs. It made him an easy going guy, and it was easy to hang around him and feel comfortable, but it also made Kakashi feel nervous thinking that there's a possibility that Genma might check out Sakura too. Maybe it was Kakashi's protectiveness of his students, maybe not. He knew that Sakura was easily hurt especially when it came to matters of love. He also knew that Sakura wouldn't be the type of person to have sex without having her emotions tied to it. He heard Genma whistle, and heard him saying,

"Damn…! She's hot!"

Normally Kakashi couldn't care less, but for some reason, tonight he turned to see what Genma was looking at. He saw the blue eyed blonde from this morning who took Sakura away; walk in with a silky and sparkly purple strapless dress that went up to her thighs, and saw a flash of pink hair hiding behind her.

_Sakura…_

Kakashi's eyes widen a little as Sakura made herself visible in his line of vision. She wore a simple black halter dress, which was covered in a thin layer of fine mesh that started to flare out at her hipbones and rested above her knees. Her dress slanted from her left thighs to her right knee. Her black heels were like an extension to her legs, they made her an inch or two taller than usual.

Genma made a dash through the crowds towards them instantly.

Sakura turned and met eyes to eyes with Kakashi.

_Hatake! Staring… AGAIN! Damn, I haven't stared at anything for a while now. Kami… why did I have to read icha icha before coming._

Kakashi quickly averted his eyes and turned towards the bar.

Sakura politely greeted Genma, and made her way over to Kakashi, leaving Genma with Ino. Surprisingly enough, Sakura didn't question Kakashi about him staring, and she also didn't trip and stumble in the process of walking over to him in her two inch heels.

She smiled at him, and asked, "Is this seat taken?"

Kakashi simply shook his head, and turned back to his own drink.

_Her smile is a little bit off tonight, compared to this morning, doesn't seem too genuine… wonder what happened… It's weird she didn't go straight to the back of the bar with Naruto and the rest of her friends._

He glanced at Sakura once again, and noticed that she wore a little bit of Mascara tonight. Her cheeks sparkled a little bit, and her lips were coated with a thin layer of light pink lip-gloss. Kakashi quickly looked back to his drink to avoid the same awkward situation as before.

_New Years must be a special occasion to her. She's pretty graceful tonight, doesn't seem like Sakura at all._

Graceful would have been one of the last words that Kakashi would use to describe Sakura, until tonight. Being caught up in his thoughts once again, he didn't look at her again until he heard her exclaim, "WHAT THE …"

Kakashi took notice that she turned wide eyed, and a blush made its way to her face. She was holding the drinks menu.

Kakashi started to wonder what was so interesting or embarrassing on the menu to make her blush like that.

"Wha-at type of dr-ink is slippery nipple, and… … Sex on the beach… Orgaaa…. Orgasm?!" Her face turned even redder as she continued to read the list of alcohol shots. "Cum…Shot? Kami… whaaat? Who drinks stuff like this?"

Kakashi didn't think her eyes could open any wider. Kakashi started to chuckle as Sakura whispered and stuttered to herself like no one else was around her.

_She truly was innocent for a 20 year old._

With an overwhelmed look, Sakura looked up to the bartender and said, "umm… do you think you can give me a glass of orange juice…"

Kakashi just plain out laughed at her, and he got the reaction he was waiting for. She looked up at him through her long eyelashes; with her wide emerald eyes, and started to blush.

"Shut up… Kakashi-Sensei… you're mean!"

"First of all, I'm not mean. It's just amusing to see a 20 year old being embarrassed by those names that they give to shots. And second, can you stop calling me Sensei? I haven't been your Sensei in a good couple years, and when you and Naruto call me that, it makes me sound old."

"But Kakashi-Sensei… you _ARE _old…"

Kakashi just made a face.

"I'm sorry! I just had to say that to annoy you… Ka…ka…shi…" Sakura made a face as she said his name; added "Sensei" quickly, then grinned and laughed.

Just then the bartender came back with her orange juice. Sakura turned her attention back to her drink and began to sip at her orange juice.

Kakashi decided that her laugh was different too. It was not the 12 year old giggles that he once knew, it was just different. It was pleasant. Other people around them started dancing and acting like how drunken people acted; and in the meantime they sat in a comfortable silence while sipping at their drinks.

_She has a far away look in her eyes..._

But Kakashi wasn't one to ask people about their personal lives, especially when he didn't want other people in his.

They stopped drinking and looked around when they heard the crowd yell, "COUNTDOWN!"

As the people in the bar started the count down, people started to be rowdier. The noise level rose and everyone stood up to count. Kakashi remained seated on his stool to watch the other people countdown. He was never much of a partier, but tonight had been different. He didn't want to party, yet he didn't want to sit at home alone. So he chose to sit where the crowd was. After all, it was New Years Eve.

"10! 9! 8! …"

Kakashi turned towards Sakura to see what she was doing, only to notice that she wasn't sitting where she was before. He looked around and saw that she was nowhere to be found.

"7! 6! 5! …"

Kakashi stood up and wondered where she could have gone.

_Was there someone special she wanted to be with at the start of the New Year?_

"4! 3! 2! …"

Then something caught Kakashi's attention as he noticed the same flash of pink hair that had caught his eye earlier in the night, now walking towards the exit of the bar.

"1! …"

Kakashi made a step towards the door.

"HAPPY NEW YEARS!!!"

With a blink of an eye, Sakura was gone.

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**I finished this at a sleepover party when everyone was sleeping *haha*. It is now 6am in the morning. The names of the alcohol shots are actually real. I read it on some menu when I was eating with a bunch of friends back in school. It was amusing, so I just had to put it in here.**

**And sorry for making Naruto slower than normal, I just find him cuter that way. He's like comedy relief! =] *haha***

**Hope you all enjoyed the chapter! I tried to make it a bit longer. =]**

**Thanks to those people who reviewed! I appreciate and love you guys for it!**


	3. Reality

**Catching Up – Chapter 3 **

_Kurai-Hisaki_

**For everyone who encouraged & gave me feedback, edited for me – especially ****Namake.**

**Thank You Very Much! - どもありがとございます！**

* * *

_I should have known that today was New Years… Why else would shishou give me a break?_

With a sigh, Sakura tilted her head backwards to look at the silver crescent moon that hung in the sky. There were no stars tonight. Slowly, she walked down the empty streets of Konoha, with her eyes closed and her head tilted towards the sky.

To the eyes of a civilian, Sakura looked like a lost spirit. Her black dress swayed in the wind, while her pale skin and light pink hair looked a couple tints lighter in the moonlight. She dangled her tiny black purse on her right index finger, as she continued to walk down the silent street.

Everyone was indoors, celebrating with their families, friends or other loved ones during the start of the New Years. There was a reason that Sakura wanted to stay home this morning, but she just couldn't refuse Naruto's offer on breakfast, especially since she hasn't seen Kakashi in a while. She had wanted to be alone, but she never got the chance to be. Ino had been dressing her the whole afternoon and evening.

Breathing deeply, she enjoyed the cool breeze in her hair and on her face.

_It's been a year…_

She walked down the dusty path to the place she knew all too well. Stopping at the bridge where Team Seven always used to meet, she lowered her head down to see her reflection in the water looking back at her. Leaning on the wooden railings, she rested her elbows on it and for a couple minutes, she just stood there observing her reflection.

_Dad's bright emerald eyes… Mom's roseate coloured hair… _

She couldn't say that she loved her life when she was in Team Seven. Sakura knew that her team considered her weak and useless. She was emotional, boy crazy, and the only thing good about her was chakra control, but back then she couldn't really apply it to any Ninjutsu or Genjutsu anyway. She didn't even bother with Taijutsu back then. Taijutsu involved her getting up close and personal to the enemy, and it wasn't something she liked to do. Of course, there was the latter matter where she would end up getting too sweaty in front of Sasuke, bruise her knuckles or worse, break a nail. She scoffed at herself for even thinking those thoughts when she was younger.

The young woman took off her two inch heels, stretched her feet and toes; and in the meantime hooking the straps of the heels to her right wrist, letting the shoes dangle there. Really, there was no need for her to do that; her feet didn't hurt as much as when she first wore heels. Maybe it was to prove to her that she didn't mind the dirt as much as she use to. She had grown up; physically, emotionally and mentally.

_To think I was scared of breaking a nail and getting sweaty._

Sakura mentally rolled her eyes at herself.

_I've practically slept in mud now, and have had over five dozens of injuries: both major and minor injuries, including broken bones. _

Obviously, when the appropriate time comes, she would treat herself.

_Always friends and comrades before self though…_

When she started training under Tsunade, she felt that her life had taken for a better turn. She had learned to stop putting her selfish emotions in every situation, and she learned to put others first.

_Being a medic can do that though… when someone is dying in front of your eyes you tend to treat them without being asked twice or even thinking about it. _

If the situation was in her power to control, she would take control. She considered herself to be stronger than the previous twelve year old self that she once knew.

Sure she didn't have a boyfriend, then and now. But when Sasuke returned, she didn't feel the need to have one anymore; or even to date for that matter. Both she and Naruto were good friends with the Uchiha, before, now and probably forever. It didn't matter if he left or not, they would always be here for him, but she didn't feel the attraction that she once did when she was twelve years old.

She felt like she had everything going for her during that time. She was satisfied with her two best friends, and with all the achievements she had gained while working in the hospital.

As a kunoichi and a medic of Konoha, it was rare that all of her friends that she grew up with were still alive and well. Some of them had a few mishaps during their missions, but it was nothing Sakura couldn't heal. A handful of her friends had ended up in near death situations before, and Sakura would give her all to heal them; take care of them until they regained their health. Healing others was like her second nature now.

Thinking about all the people that were still physically with her, the pink haired woman turned to her thoughts again; this time, to the people who she couldn't physically be attached to anymore.

_If you have never experienced sadness, then you would never know happiness…_

She had repeated that phrase over and over again to herself in her head; more than usual over the past year.

She sighed once again, and kicked a little pebble by her feet down to the river she was previously staring at. She turned away as her reflection rippled and her feet automatically carried her down the moonlit dusty path again.

This time she didn't stop until the tips of her toes met with a slab of stone.

She walked to the bottom-right corner of the stone, which was mounted on the ground, and knelt on the soft grass beneath her.

She whispered, "_Otousan… Okaasan…" _

Why couldn't she have been more selfish back then?

There were rare moments in her life where she felt total selflessness; and that was one of them.

It was her parent's 20th anniversary, and they were going out of the village to celebrate. They had announced it to her before she found out that there was an award ceremony held for the medics. She had been recognized as one of the best medics in Konoha.

Her hard work and dedication had brought her to the top.

_It had been one of the happiest moments of my life._

Having parents that were still together now-a-days were rare; she felt blessed to be a part of the loving and supporting family that she had. She felt like celebrating all over again. She wanted to tell them that she loved them for everything they did, and how glad she was to have them.

She promised herself she would do so when her parents came back.

_Waiting for them to come back had been one of the longest waits…_

The crisp breeze played with her hair. The moonlight reflected off the stone, and highlighted the engravings that were on it.

Once again she whispered, "_It's been a year…"_

Keeping the ceremony to herself, she had wished her parents a happy trip, and to have fun.

_I should have been selfish… I should have told them about the ceremony. I should have made them stay here… for me._

Tracing the names of her father and mother with her fingertips, she felt a stab at her heart and a sob threatening to come up to her lips. She refused to let it out.

Now she would never get the chance to tell her parents about the award, and never hear and see how proud of her they would have been. They would never spend another New Years together. She never had told them that she loved them, and how glad she was that they had been a part of her life.

Perhaps they could feel her love now, wherever they were.

It hadn't been a Happy New Year for Sakura, and she couldn't bring herself to say "Happy New Years" to her parents. Was she bitter? No. But she certainly wasn't happy.

Why hadn't she said anything when she had the chance to?

_Because you wanted them to be happy, to not feel regret to leave a loved one behind._

Thus the reason why Sakura tried so hard to find happiness. She knew that her parents would have wanted her to be happy. Thus the reason why Sakura didn't tell anyone about this. It was easier this way when no one asked her if she was alright. No one pitied her. No one treated her any differently from anyone else.

Sakura had told Tsunade, but had also told her to keep it a secret. The Godaime respected her wishes, and had offered her a few days off to adjust emotionally, as well as mentally. She had said that she could help Sakura by telling people that she was on a solo mission, but Sakura didn't want to take a break. She wanted to live a normal everyday life. When Tsunade found out Sakura's point of view on this matter and how serious she was about it, she didn't treat Sakura any differently after that conversation. Sakura assured her that she was fine, and gave her the brightest smile she could muster. Whether the blonde believed it or not, Sakura would never know. They never talked about the matter again.

Even Naruto didn't know about it. She didn't want him worrying, and he didn't find out. She didn't want just anyone to find out about what happened; she promised herself that she would let someone know when they found out themselves. She also knew that if Naruto knew, he would ask about her everyday, and the matter would eventually spread throughout the village.

In the end, no one had found out about her parents. If anyone had carelessly asked her about it, she'd say that they were on vacation celebrating their 20th anniversary.

She hadn't cried when Tsunade ordered someone to engrave the names of her parents on the stone. Besides looking for their own loved ones, no one ever bothered to read the rest of the memorial, therefore no one knew about her situation. The world was still turning. The citizens of Konoha continued to live on. Dawn came every morning, and Dusk came every night.

It didn't feel real.

She hadn't shed a single tear.

The last year had been busy for Sakura. She busied herself with work, sometimes not intentionally, but work kept her away from her thoughts. When there were holidays you were meant to spend with your loved ones, she would hide in her apartment, studying scrolls and brushing up on old skills. When there wasn't a holiday, she would bury herself with work at the hospital.

She hugged herself as a chill took over her body, and she shivered.

As expected, having nothing to keep her busy with, her thoughts took over. Seeing how she couldn't be in the hospital, she wanted to stay home to do what she always did when she was at home. All because of Naruto, her routine and daily life for the past year had been disrupted.

For the first time in a year, she came to the place where she felt like she could visit her parents. She finally stared at reality – face to face.

Reality hit her; and she accepted it.

_They're never coming back._

Something had changed today.

Escaping into denial was easy, dealing with reality was not. When a harsh reality slapped you in the face, accepting it was probably the hardest thing anyone could do.

Sakura put her head down and let the lush grass caress her face. Keeping her eyes in the direction of the engraved stone, she blinked slowly.

She suddenly felt very tired – more than she had ever been in an entire year.

At times like these, she wished she had someone to share her burdens with; someone to listen to her without over-analyzing her situation and asking questions; someone to just hold and warm her when she was cold; someone to spend her holidays with; someone to be there when she was alone.

_Someone to understand and to love me, for who I am._

As a medic, she knew that with the way she had been acting the past year, she wasn't healthy – emotionally or mentally, and this affected her physically. How had everyone failed to notice that she lost more weight than she had ever lost in her life combined, in just a year? It just showed her how little people cared.

_Wasn't there anyone who cared? Who could see that something was really wrong with her?_

No one could.

Time felt like it had stopped for her; her world had stopped a year ago.

Feeling the coolness on the side of her head and her face, fatigue overwhelmed Sakura. She slid her eyelids together and slipped into darkness, letting her thoughts and her mind take over freely.

Dealing with it alone had been what Sakura wanted at the time.

Now she wasn't so sure anymore.


	4. Broken Rules

**Catching Up – Chapter 4**

_Kurai-Hisaki_

**Sorry for taking so long to update! School and work has been starting to get crazy and psycho on me.**

* * *

Kakashi had followed the pink-haired kunoichi out when he couldn't find her anywhere in the bar. Hopping on rooftops, he trailed her down the streets of Konoha. He hid his chakra from her not wanting her to be alert that there's someone following her. Despite the fact that she was an excellent kunoichi, she didn't suspect a thing; not once did she look back behind or above her to see if there was anyone there. Maybe she was just occupied with something else. It could have also been the fact that Kakashi had quite a bit of time perfecting his stealth – of course being an Anbu in his youth had helped too.

While keeping a good distance from the kunoichi, he watched her as she looked at her own reflection. Then his eyes followed her figure as she seemed to float down the path that continued after the bridge. He felt like a stalker, because that was precisely what he had been doing – stalking.

Even if Konoha was a safe village, he felt like it was his job to make sure she was safe at home. After all you can never be too safe; she was his only female student, former or not. A thought spoke out to him.

_You haven't cared for her in the past 5 years, what made you start now?_

It had been right, why was he concerned now? Perhaps he should go back to the bar, or better yet home – it was New Years, what was he doing spying on his former student? He should go spend some time with his friends, seeing how he's never at home. But he felt like he couldn't leave Sakura here alone; no one should be alone on New Years – although he didn't mind it when he was alone. He was comfortable with the lack of socializing, but he knew Sakura wasn't. He thought that someone should be there for Sakura – but that someone wasn't going to and cannot be him.

In spite of all his thoughts, his feet didn't budge from his spot at all – which were now planted on one of the thick branches of a tree. He crouched low on the branch, out of sight, as he watched the pink-haired woman approach the place he spent most of his time in. He vaguely wondered why she would be there – someone as youthful and lively as her should not be in a sad place like this. As far as he knew, all her teammates were still alive and well. He decided he will find out later when she left.

In his line of sight, he noticed her dress flowing in the wind as she lowered herself on the grass. To him, she looked like a fallen angel – her wings clipped and she couldn't return to the place that she wanted to be.

He wasn't sure how long he had been standing in the shadows watching her – how would he anyways? Everyone knows he doesn't wear a watch. He wasn't even sure if he owned one, or how long ago since he used one. Time had never been an issue on his part; why else would he be late all the time? But he guessed that it must have been pretty late as he saw Sakura lay her head on the grass. He knew that she was here for a reason, and he was convinced that she was just resting until she was ready to go home.

More time seemed to have passed by, and Sakura never moved from her spot. An instinctive shiver made its way down Kakashi's back as he felt the breeze through his thin long sleeves – he could only wonder how Sakura wasn't frozen in her dress.

_She's going to catch a cold._

A sigh escaped Kakashi's lips as he slipped down from the trees and gently dropped on the grass underneath him in silence. He realized that something was very wrong as he made his way towards the pink haired kunoichi. She never made any movement as he approached her – if he was an enemy, she'd be dead. He frowned.

_She's usually more alert; I thought I taught her better than this._

His heart pounded harder as he neared her.

_Why wasn't she moving?_

He picked up his pace as he took long strides towards her. He flipped her over and kneeled down and placed his cheek near her mouth. She was breathing. Even though it didn't make sense to him, it seemed to him that she passed out from exhaustion.

_She hadn't been physically overexerting herself tonight, so what happened? _

He had noticed that before he had turned her on her back, she was facing a particular area of the stone. Wondering what had been able to capture her interest for so long; he crouched, facing the stone and looked past her head to see where her eyes have previously been fixed on. Part of the engravings shimmered in the moonlight. His eyes widened.

_Haruno_

Kakashi's lone onyx eye remained opened wide as he glanced down at the motionless kunoichi. He had been correct on one thing; it was not a death of a teammate. How had he managed to miss one of his student's most devastating moments - especially Sakura's? Sasuke and Naruto had grown up without their parents, but Sakura had parents when she was growing up. How had he managed to miss her longing looks at other children with parents? How had he managed to miss this big event? This piece of news should have travelled to his ears by now – shouldn't it? Surely Naruto or Sasuke would have told him. Only one thought popped up in his head. He hasn't been around enough lately.

Maybe it was his guilt talking, but he wanted to comfort her. He knew he was not the best person to do so – having lost many loved ones himself; he was not capable of telling her that everything was alright, because he knew very well that they were not. He felt pity for her. He knew how losing loved ones felt like, and he knew that she held her loved ones as close to her heart as she possibly can – it must have hit her extra hard. Being the only female in his team, as well as not being the great copy ninja, an Uchiha or the container of the Kyuubi; he knew that she felt inadequate. He felt guilty for not being there for her back then, as well as not being here for her now.

He realized that he missed out on a big portion of her life. She hid these emotions from him, and if he didn't follow her tonight, he would have never found out about this. She was no longer the same girl who wore every emotion on her sleeve. The girl he knew would have been crying for days on end, but the young woman in front of him did not have the scent of tears, nor were there any marks on her face that signalled to him that she had been crying. The only expression that she showed, was a crease between her brows, like something had just been simply bothering her.

Suddenly she looked a lot stronger, yet more fragile than she had ever been to him.

With a deep exhale through his mask, he effortlessly scooped her up into his arms and started to walk towards her apartment. Her skin was icy cold, but she never shivered once. She seemed to be unresponsive, and this made Kakashi's heart drop. Holding her as close to him as possible, he started to walk a little faster than his normal pace.

As he neared her apartment, he didn't feel like it was appropriate to search Sakura's body for the key. When the apartment came into his view, he silently thanked God for little favours as the little balcony that was attached to her bedroom became visible.

There was no door. All there was that led to the inside from this balcony was a window; not that this stopped Kakashi anyways. As he pulled open the window, he put his knee up and propped Sakura's upper body on it. Once the window was successfully opened, he hopped in with Sakura in his arms.

He scanned her room with his eye.

_And just when I thought everything she owned was pink._

There were scrolls and books everywhere – including the floor and on the bed. A layer of dust that had settled on her black bed frame and on her red bed sheets caught Kakashi's attention.

_Where has she been sleeping these few days, or rather years?_

He made a mental map of her apartment as he walked through it. She seemed to have had a bathroom attached to her bedroom. The first thing he saw when he walked out of her bedroom, to the living room, was a pillow lying in the middle of the floor. He guessed that she must have thrown it when she got up to open the door for Naruto this morning. She probably never got the chance to go home after she got dragged out this morning. As he walked past the pillow, he eyed it and gave a slight smile to himself when a thought crossed his head.

_She probably stomped on it a couple of times too. Poor pillow._

He saw a thin blanket on the couch, and an opened book lying face down within arms reach from the couch.

_So this is where she slept._

Aside from her bedroom that looked like it had been through a natural disaster, the rest of her apartment was spotless – besides the random pillow in the middle of the living room.

After deciding that clearing her bed so Sakura could sleep on it was not a wise idea, he placed her on the black leather sofa. She'd kill him if he messed up the order of her books and scrolls; who was he to know if she was working on breakthrough medical skills. Turning to her bedroom, he stood in front of her closet, debating to himself whether or not to dig through her closet for a blanket. With a droop of his shoulders, he made a decision.

_I can't believe I'm going to go through a woman's closet…_

Not that he can remember clearly, but the last time he stepped into a bedroom, aside from his own was probably a couple years ago. And it was probably because the person inside that bedroom had been in a life or death scenario. Now he's going through someone's closet – which was located in their bedroom. Thankfully, he did not come across anything that he has never seen before – though this is not saying much for a guy who reads porn in broad daylight. Finally after 10 minutes, he pulled out a worn sleeping bag.

_I remember this; she used to use this on our team seven missions._

He did not intentionally try to store information like this into his memory, but it was amazing how his mind remembered little details such as this one. He would say that he has a special sort of selective memory. He remembers things that he does not pay attention to. He can remember every page in the Icha Icha volumes that he had read. He can memorize every jutsu shown to him, yet he cannot remember simple things – like the locations for practices with his only Genin team or the time for a meeting with the Hokage, no matter how disastrous the results were.

With a sigh, he picked up the pillow on the way back to the couch. Gently lifting Sakura's head he propped it behind her. He opened her sleeping bag like a blanket and tucked her in. The moonlight shone through the window, framing her figure and he noticed that she was still in her dress. Would she mind if she slept in her dress? Would it get wrinkled? How much would she have to spend to fix, wash and straighten the dress the next morning? He would never know. It didn't seem to be uncomfortable for her; in fact she still made no motions aside from breathing.

He had broken one too many rules tonight, rules he had set for himself – to distance himself from others around him. Rules that he set so that he would not be emotionally attached to anyone or anything while going on multiple missions in a short period of time. He knew that once he had bumped into Naruto yesterday, things were going to change.

Rules were going to be broken. Afterall, it _was_ Naruto.

_I've looked at her once too many times. More or less, they were inappropriate glances, even if she was my former student. I probably touched her more in one night than I had for the past couple years. I stalked her like a pedophile and then broke into her apartment… can't break another one, especially the one that just crossed my mind._

He pushed the thoughts out of his head and yanked the opened sleeping bag up to her neck. Kakashi rested his hands on her forehead to check if she was warming up. Once satisfied with the results, he forced his eyes away from her delicate figure.

So he had finally spent his New Years with someone this year. And so had she, even though she didn't know it. At least she hadn't been alone. Knowing this fact, Kakashi smiled to himself in the darkness. He looked towards the ceiling as he tried to decide what to do. With final glance at his slumbering former student, he turned and walked towards the window and the balcony that he came in from.

_I hope you feel better, Sakura._

With that thought, he leaped out of her apartment.

* * *

**The balcony with nothing but a window actually does exist, there's one around the corner of my street. Sorry for another "not-so-happy" chapter, but at least it's not a depressing one right? *haha* **

**I didn't get a chance to get an editor for this one either, so if there are any mistakes please tell me!**

**Anyways, I think the one-shot that I wrote can be inserted somewhere (I'm not sure where) into this story. It describes a lot of feelings on Kakashi's part, which is similar to his feelings in this story. Yet it was different and it also made a nice short story itself (so I made it into a one-shot). **

**It is called ****One Simple Dance.**** Please check it out if you have time! **

**Thanks to those who reviewed! I can feel your support and it makes me smile. I love you guys for it! **


	5. A Temporary Routine

**Catching Up – Chapter 5**

_Kurai-Hisaki_

**I just finished a story/diary for Final Fantasy VII – Cloud x Tifa. It's called ****Unspoken****. It's from Tifa's POV, and the story is a mix of FF and real life situations that has happened to me. It was half of my life through Tifa's eyes, and I thought it was pretty interesting. It's a mix of real/fake situations, and it's blended so you don't really know which is which.**

**Please do check it out and give me some feedback if you have time!**

**Anyways, here's the next chapter – enjoy!**

* * *

The sun shone through the clouds on Sakura's face. She opened her eyes to a very hazy surrounding – an effect due to the sun.

_Another crappy day… looks very gloomy outside; maybe it's going to rain…_

She sat staring at the window for a while, before a though hit her.

_How did I get home? I was sure when I fell asleep it was outside on the grass in front of the memorial stone… _

_Did someone carry me home?! Who was it?! How did they know that I slept on the couch?_

Feeling a bit dizzy and in a panic she jumped up from the couch and gave herself a huge cut her shin on the edge of her coffee table.

"OH, F-"

"What happened?"

A calm, familiar face peeked around the frame of her bedroom door. Scaring the crap out of Sakura, she fell butt first on the carpet.

_Damn, another embarrassing moment…_

"WHAT ARE YOU … What are you doing here? Why were you in my room?"

"Bringing you breakfast."

Kakashi held up a paper bag as he walked over to her kitchen table and placed the bag on it. Making his way to Sakura, he bent down and picked her up.

"And you know as well as I do that I don't use the door much."

Sakura rolled her eyes. "I'm not in a life or death situation, I can walk you know…"

Kakashi ignored her. Placing her on the nearest chair, he went to her bathroom, took out some bandages that he had discovered the night before from her cabinet and kneeled in front of Sakura. Kakashi looked up at her while bandaging. Sakura's hair was disheveled as she just woke up, her dress was wrinkled, and it was currently resting on top of her thighs as he pushed it up to wrap her wounds. Her eyes were half closed as she looked at her wound.

_God, why are you doing this to me… she looks like something from the Icha Icha movies… At least her dress covered everything… Why does she look a bit pale… and turning paler by the second…?_

"OH MY GOD!"

Sakura jumped up and her chair fell backwards with the momentum. Kakashi's eyes snapped to her face – guilty of his thoughts and afraid that he had been caught staring at her _again._

"You brought me home yesterday night, didn't you?!"

Kakashi nodded while wondering what he did wrong to make her react this way. She was frantic. Sakura suddenly knelt in front of him with her head lowered to the floor – all the while, bleeding on her carpet.

She begged him, "Please Please, don't tell anyone what you saw yesterday. Please don't tell anyone where I was."

Kakashi wondered why she was so negative about this, but she continued and he understood. She knew that Kakashi was very observant when he needed to be, she had no doubts of what he had seen her doing and with whom.

"No one knows about this except for shishou, please don't say anything, you weren't suppose to know. I thought you were at the bar for the countdown, so I slipped out hoping that you didn't notice… but I guess you did huh… I'm sorry; I didn't realize that you were following me. I didn't want anyone to treat me differently. Please don't pity me either, I can handle this on my own, and …"

"Sakura, you're rambling. I understand. Don't worry."

And Kakashi _did_ understand. He understood why she didn't want anyone to know. He understood why no one told him about Sakura's change in personality, why no one acted any differently except for her. No one knew – so this was why he was never informed about this from Naruto and Sasuke. It wasn't because he wasn't around enough; it was because no one knew. He found out something he wasn't supposed to, and he just complicated his life by needing to keep someone else's secret.

Not that he minded.

He felt like he had the obligation to look after Sakura anyways.

In a gentle and calm voice he spoke to her. "Sakura, sit up and let me finish dressing the wound, it's deeper than you think."

Sakura slowly rose to pick up her chair and to sit down again. Kakashi noticed that she was biting her lips the whole way.

"You might want to stop biting your lips that way; you don't want to know how I cure bleeding lips."

Kakashi gave her a smile and was rewarded with a small smile of her own.

"Pervert."

Kakashi chuckled.

"So where did you stay the whole night? You weren't in my bedroom while I was on the couch were you?"

He spoke while keeping his usual sleepy, calm face. "Of course I kept the nice bed to myself… It smelled nice and was soft and…" After being hit on the shoulder lightly, he continued more seriously, "actually, I felt that it was inappropriate for me to stay over without your permission, so I stayed outside your window, on your balcony - which isn't much of your property anyways since everyone always hops on it while going to places. I went to grab breakfast this morning, and reached the window when you cut your leg open."

Sakura's mouth dropped opened.

"It's cold outside! I know you sleep outside all the time, but I still can't believe you, you are so weird! My house was within arms reach. You know that I'd welcome you anytime! If you got sick, I'm the one who'd get stuck healing you, you know?"

"I know."

Kakashi's baritone laugh made its way to Sakura's ears. She felt warm inside and a bit dizzier than this morning.

_He stayed outside the whole night… who would have thought that he would be a gentleman? The lazy, perverted copy ninja, a gentleman… huh…_

The thought made her stifle a laugh.

"What's so funny?"

"You… being concerned about other people's property and feelings."

"I'm a sensitive guy…"

Her laugh made its way out of her mouth.

"I suppose that makes sense, you don't like other people invading your privacy. I remember all those times trying to find out what's under that mask or what's in your orange book when we were young… Ah, fun times…"

Kakashi suddenly became serious and leaned a couple centimetres away from Sakura's face.

He breathed out his sentence to her in a low and husky voice.

"Would you still like to see what's under the mask?"

Sakura blushed and became very flustered with him being so close. From her distance, she could tell that he had lines on the corner of his eyes that was created by smiling throughout his life. His eyelashes were a decent length that outlined his eyes perfectly. She could see that he had a strong jaw-line from the outline of his mask and a tall nose that was just right for his face. She felt like she couldn't breathe. She didn't even realize that she never answered his questions before she fell out of her chair.

A lone onyx eye peered down at her as Kakashi expressed amusement and laughed.

Wiggling the bag of breakfast up above her face, the copy ninja teased her.

"Breakfast?"

"I hate you."

"Now, now, don't be bitter just because you are embarrassed."

"I am not bitter or embarrassed! Shut up!"

Kakashi just laughed some more at her without helping her up. Grabbing the nearest chair, he sat himself down and started to eat. Sakura sat up with her head in between her hands.

_Ugh… Dizzy… What the hell…_

As soon as the young kunoichi stood, she fell forward. Being the quick ninja that Kakashi was, he caught her well before she hit the floor.

With a very concerned expression, he looked at her and asked, "What's wrong?"

Sakura replied, "I'm not sure… I think I might be sick…" then she started to talk half to herself, "This is so strange… I haven't been sick in the longest time… I can't even remember the last time I was sick, I'm always at the hospital yet I was always fine. Why am I sick now?"

"Probably because you slept outside with nothing but a thin dress on. You seemed pretty out of it last night too, I'm guessing you need a break from work. Take a break, you're exhausted."

Sakura spoke while trying to make her way to the couch. She couldn't walk straight, so Kakashi carried her until she reached the couch. "I'm fine. I'll be as good as new tomorrow. Who are you to tell me to take a break anyways? You never take one yourself."

"I'll take one."

"Why?"

"To look after you, because obviously you can't look after yourself. You are going to start by sleeping on the bed, and not the couch."

The once fiery woman, opened her mouth to argue, only to close it again, then she ran to the bathroom and curled herself around the toilet.

Kakashi simply said, "Who just said a couple seconds ago that they were fine?"

He was rewarded with a deadly glare.

"Umm… Sakura, I think you have a fever."

"No shit."

He wanted to reply with 'Where did you pick up that type of language from' but decided against it as he noticed that she was obviously in a worse mood than this morning and last night. Kakashi held her hair up while she threw up. He couldn't remember the last time that he took care of someone. When was the last time he touched such soft hair? Checking her forehead with his hand, it was confirmed that the famous medic, Haruno Sakura, was sick.

When she was done, Kakashi grabbed a cup that was hanging around the sink, filled it up with water, and gave it to Sakura to rinse her mouth. Leaving Sakura alone for a while, he went to her bedroom to clean a space for her to sleep in. Being neat for once, he piled her books and scrolls on a nearby desk while making note of what on the bed ended up where on the desk.

Sakura sluggishly walked out of the washroom. Without looking at Kakashi, she muttered a 'thank-you' then fell face first onto her pillow. She was out like a light.

Pulling blankets over her, he decided that he'll go to the Hokage's later on to tell her that he needed a break to look after his former student. He was sure that Tsunade will understand, provided that she was the other person that knew about Sakura's situation. Planning out the rest of his schedule for the day, he also decided to stop by his most hated place in the world, the hospital, to pick up some medicine for Sakura. After all this was probably the one place where he could get expensive medicine for free – especially since he was a well known shinobi and the medicine was for a well known head medic.

_Maybe a light lunch and dinner wouldn't hurt much either… I suppose I'll stop by Tsunade's then the hospital, come back to check on Sakura, and then hop out again to bring some lunch back… This place needs a bit of cleaning too… I can do that after lunch… hmm wonder when she'll wake up… I'm guessing she'll want a bit of company after… maybe over dinner…_

Being dazed and too caught up in his thoughts, Kakashi did not realize that his feet were already carrying him to Tsunade's.

And thus, a routine had been set for the next couple of days.

* * *

**So… a funny thing happened to me today, I just have to do a blurb about it.**

**I was doing a photo shoot in a lab, and was pretending to put chemicals into a flask. Then another model was facing me and what he was supposed to do was to pretend that he was talking to me or was describing something to me. I guess he misunderstood the photographer, because he actually started talking to me and reading the labels on the chemical jars to me. He just kept reading the warnings and ingredients to me. Then he picked up this white bottle (I think it was Sodium Potassium Phosphate or something, not sure…), he stuck his finger in it then ate some of it. ****I'm just like staring at him like he had 2 heads.****Then he reads the bottle again, and he's like "Oh, there's lead in here."  
****I'm like *O_O… "Isn't that poisonous?"  
****He's like "Yeah, but I should be fine."  
****I'm just thinking… who the hell does that?! I wouldn't put my hand anywhere near my mouth after being in a chemistry lab. Hope he doesn't die.  
****But yeah, that's my little morning one day at work…**

**Please give me some feedback about the chapter, any mistakes?**

**Thanks!**


	6. Connecting

**Catching Up – Chapter 6**

_Kurai-Hisaki_

Due to the request of a friend, I have started writing an Inuyasha story. So for all you Inuyasha fans/lovers out there; please check it out! It's called Daybreak. It's also a change from the regular stories that I write, as it is written in first person.

Now…on with the story – some good KakaSaku bonding moments!

* * *

"HEY! I was watching that!"

"Go to bed and get some rest."

"No! Are you kidding me? It's 9 pm! I want to watch some TV before I sleep."

"You're not going to get any better by not resting."

"Who are you to tell me what to do? You're not my dad!"

Kakashi glanced at her; then a period of awkward silence followed. Sakura glared at him.

"I'm fine! Besides, I _am_ resting… on the couch." Sakura ended that with a smile and turned her attention back to the TV.

With a sigh, Kakashi gave in and flopped on the couch beside her.

Sakura started speaking again after a short while, with her attention still on the screen. "You know what? He reminds me of you."

"Who?" Kakashi asked quickly.

"Wolx."

Kakashi let a silent sigh of relief out, as Sakura pointed her fingers at the screen and continued her sentence. " Not just the hair, but the eyes and the attitude and the scar. He just reminds me a lot of you. When you weren't here, I was watching this earlier and that thought just popped into my head."

"His attitude is horrible, are you saying that I have a bad attitude? Hey, who's she?" Kakashi looked bored while pointing to a blue haired girl on that same screen.

"No way! I think Wolx is the coolest character in the show! I love him!"

Kakashi looked at her briefly, but Sakura kept talking, "I think he's missing an important aspect though… he's missing the bright orange book… sure, he was a bit evil and a bit too serious sometimes, but who doesn't love a cool villain who helps the heroes. Besides, you can tell inside he's a very caring guy - and that's Ren. She doesn't talk much, but she's cute eh? So I see the silent type gets your attention!" With eyes still fixed on the screen, Sakura laughed at Kakashi. Kakashi's expression fell a bit and he didn't respond.

Sakura continued to talk, more or less to herself. "Good choice, I like her too, but Kuea is definitely cooler for the girl characters. She's pretty hyper and cute… hmm… Rowen isn't too bad either… perfect gentleman…"

Noticing something was wrong, Sakura turned her eyes on Kakashi's face, but Kakashi's eye crinkle was back and his usual, carefree face was there. Sakura shrugged it off and went back to watching her show until she got tired. For some weird reason, Sakura was dozing off a lot more easily these past few days.

Kakashi knew his day was coming to an end when he smelt a faint scent of shampoo and felt something rest gently on the side of his arm. He let his gaze drop and found that Sakura had fallen asleep on his shoulder.

_I could get use to this…_

After tucking her in once again - thus concludes another day for our famous Copy Ninja.

* * *

"Should you be walking around?"

Sakura spun her head around to see that her ex-sensei was propped against the doorframe to her kitchen.

"Are you sure you're even well enough to cook? That's not salt, and your eggs are starting to burn."

Sakura blushed a nice shade of red before grumbling a 'shut up' to him.

"Need any help?"

Reaching for her toast from the toaster while flipping the eggs, Sakura replied, "No, I'm fine and absolutely capable of cooking my own breakfast. But you _can_ help me set up the table and make some tea."

"Sure."

Knowing exactly where the tea was, Kakashi reached over Sakura's head to get the tea. During the last couple days where he was cleaning, he had decided that putting some of the stuff that was originally on the counter, into the cupboards had been a good idea. It made the place cleaner and neat looking. He was glad he made that decision.

Sakura's small frame fit perfectly against Kakashi's.

He felt that Sakura jumped a little, then relaxed.

No one had ever fit so well between his arms before, but as much as he would have liked to have stayed in that position, he moved quickly to set up the table and to make the tea.

"A bit of milk with 2 sugars please."

"I know."

"How'd you know?"

"I just do."

Hearing Kakashi's response, Sakura smiled a bit. After making breakfast for the both of them, they started a comfortable conversation. Sakura had learned that it only took Kakashi seconds to finish his food, and therefore she never asked him about his mask anymore. She would glance down to eat her own food, and he'd be done. After all, the last time she asked, she almost died from a lack of air. She would have liked to think that, that incident made her illness hit her with full force a little faster that morning than she would have liked.

Sakura thought briefly, _I think it also killed some of my brain cells in the process…_

She quickly snapped out of her thoughts as she heard Kakashi's smooth voice.

"Feeling better today?"

"I guess so…"

"Want to head out for a bit?"

"What did you have in mind?"

"Nothing in particular, whatever you feel like doing."

Sakura sat in silence for a while, poking at her food until she responded with a smile, "I know exactly how I'd like to spend this afternoon."

All Kakashi could do was sit there with an eyebrow raised.

* * *

The last week or two had been busy for Kakashi. Sakura didn't get better in a day like she said, and Kakashi ended up taking care of her for longer than he had expected. Apparently it had been more than just a fever. According to the medics, she should be fine after eating the proper medicine that they had provided for her, but it seemed to Kakashi that Sakura was getting more tired as the days went by. However, he decided to listen to the medics and to respect Sakura's wishes when she said that she wanted to stay at home.

Hopping around Sakura's apartment and around the village, he found that it was nice to be back in Konoha for more than a couple of days. He had certainly been missing out on a lot around here.

On the odd days where Sakura wasn't dizzy and was not sleeping, Kakashi would accompany her to take a walk outside and to help her get some fresh air into her system. During the times they ate together and the times they hung out, Sakura would fill Kakashi in on everything that had happened during the last couple years, and told him what he had missed out on. She seemed a bit happier when she talked about her friends, but otherwise her smiles never reached her eyes much. Kakashi had almost spat his food at Sakura when she told him that Genma and Ino had a little something going on and the lazy ass Shikamaru made an effort to do something and was now actually dating Temari. Sakura laughed at him and maturely told him to grow up. How ironic that was.

During these past few days, Kakashi found out something new about himself. Although he lived most of his life by himself and he rarely felt lonely, he found that he enjoyed the sleeping kunoichi's company – even if she was just sleeping half the time. He felt himself smiling more often. When was the last time he had human interaction with the same person for more than a day or out of his own will, not for a mission? Was it okay that he was spending more time with one person – particularly Sakura?

* * *

"Cotton Candy."

Sakura rolled her eyes while looking up to the sky. "You're not very original you know? I thought you were smarter. I would say that looks like a bit like the Milky Way or at least some planets."

"Smart-ass."

"What was that? I swear I just heard you call me a smart-ass."

"You heard right, Sakura-chan."

"I'm not that smart, I only seem smart because I'm surrounded by **not-so-smart** people."

Kakashi chuckled out, "Do I hear a challenge?"

"Bring it, **old man**."

Kakashi's eyebrow twitched and he took the opportunity to look for the next cloud with a picture.

"That one's a scarf."

"Nope, it's definitely a snake hunting a rabbit."

They had decided to go to the old training grounds after lunch one day, and instead of training, they relaxed while cloud-gazing. Lying on the grass with the top of their heads almost touching, they stared and tried to make pictures out of the clouds they saw. Eventually their competitive nature got the best of them, and they started a bet. Whoever's answer sounded more intelligent or more creative – wins. The person with the most wins got to request one thing that they wanted from the loser.

"That one looks like the top of Naruto's butt."

Sakura's eyes widened. "Ewww… How would you know what that looks like? Don't answer that, I don't want to know. Which cloud are you looking at?"

Kakashi pointed to the one that was directly above their heads. Sakura's gaze followed the direction that his finger pointed at, and she stared at it.

"How the heck did you see the top of Naruto's butt from that cloud?"

"Who knows. Is _someone_ declaring their loss?"

A moment of silence passed between them. The wind blew gently, playing with their hair and the blades of grass that surrounded them.

After a yawn, Sakura stated her answer slowly, with a soft, longing voice. "There are two big hands that belong to separate people, forming one heart, and from their views, we're directly underneath the heart. Or maybe… there's a big hand and a little hand… joined together – protectively of each other…"

Sakura had won the competition.

They had stayed at the field until the sun went down. Sakura had fallen asleep again – this time, before dinner. Not wanting her to get sicker, Kakashi took her home instantly. After making himself a light snack, he took a seat on the couch outside her room, and took out his book.

However, on silent nights like this when he was left to his thoughts, he started wondering about things that he shouldn't care about. For once, he found that he couldn't focus on his book. He was distracted. Kakashi had to admit that he had more fun today than he did in years, but there had been one major question that had ran through his mind the whole day.

_How was it that Sasuke and Naruto didn't know about Sakura's situation with her parents? _

Judging from Naruto's reaction the other morning, it didn't seem like Sakura stayed away from them, so how was it that they never realized?

_BAM BAM BAM_

"Ah… speak of the little troublemaker…"

When Kakashi opened the door, he was surprised that Sasuke, who looked as expressionless as ever, was standing there with Naruto. Sasuke now stood almost as tall as Kakashi.

"KAKASHI-SENSEI! What are you doing here?!"

Signalling to Naruto to be quiet, Kakashi let them into Sakura's apartment. Making themselves comfortable around the coffee table, they broke into a light conversation.

"So what are you doing here again?"

"Looking after Sakura."

"Oh… You're the person that Tsunade-baachan was talking about! She told us that someone that we knew was taking care of Sakura-chan, but I never thought it would be you. "

A soft '_dobe'_ could be heard.

"Since when did you start caring for your students?"

Kakashi simply shrugged.

With a low and stoic voice, Sasuke stared at Kakashi and spoke straight to the point. "We were told to get you so you could get some rest. So we came over after training and dinner. We all know taking care of Sakura for a couple of days could be tiring, so I'm taking over. You should get some sleep."

Kakashi felt uneasy for a second, but his face remained expressionless. He nodded to signal that he understood Sasuke.

_I suppose I don't have to worry about spending too much time with her after all…_

"Ne… Kakashi-sensei! Want to go get Ramen with me?!"

"Didn't you just eat with Sasuke? Why are you not staying here with him again?"

"Yeah, but I'm hungry again, and God knows I'll just annoy Sakura and get kicked out if I stay here for too long anyways. I'm sure she wants her rest. I'll probably make her condition worse."

Opening the door and dragging Kakashi out the door, Naruto yelled a brief_ 'good luck'_ to Sasuke, and then he closed the door.

He didn't know why he felt so troubled, but there was only one thing running through Kakashi's mind.

_Sasuke... and Sakura…?_

* * *

Ahhh, I know that cloud-gazing/heart thing was cheesy! I'm not sure where I came up with that.

The show/anime they were watching earlier is called Elemental Gelade or also known as Erementar Gerad. It was okay, not too bad, but I definitely like Special A better (the manga's even better than the anime, but since the manga's not done, the anime will have to do for now.) Kei is just too sweet and cute.

Hope the editing was okay, I'm quite preoccupied with trying to find a cosplay that I can do within the next few days, while I am stuck in university with no materials to make anything (haha). I think I'll just slap something a bit emo style on, and go as Amane Misa, from the Death Note movie, since my Anbu costume isn't done yet. Hopefully, if I take pictures, I can load them up on or my deviantart ^^.

Anyways, please tell me how this chap was!


	7. Precognition

**Catching Up – Chapter 7**

_Kurai-Hisaki_

I want to thank you for everyone who's been supporting me as a writer. As a new writer, your encouragements are really motivational, and I sincerely thank you for it.

**Disclaimer: Naruto belongs to Masashi Kishimoto.**

* * *

Kakashi went to grab dinner with Naruto. While the blonde talked, Kakashi couldn't help but to zone out and get caught up in his own thoughts. When they had parted, Kakashi realized that he didn't hear a single word that Naruto had said to him tonight. He walked down the dusty path, exhaling a worried sigh with every step that he took. He wandered aimlessly around town until his legs eventually brought him to the memorial.

_How've you been Obito and Rin? I'm sure you know all about what has happened. I'm not sure why I'm so troubled but I am. I feel like something's going to go wrong, and I can't help but wonder what._

Kakashi's lone eye stared at the names. Slowly, his eye drifted to the names of _Haruno._ He didn't know what was wrong, but he felt that it had something to do with the girl that he had just spent days with. Perhaps he was just thinking too much. There was nothing that he could do anyways, Sasuke had pretty much kicked him out and took over his duty to look after her. His eye darted back to the stone.

_Please look after Sakura…_

With that silent prayer, he made his way back to his apartment.

* * *

Everything after that seemed to have started moving in high speed.

As soon as he got home, he stepped in the shower and got ready for bed. Not paying attention to anything around him, time seemed to have just flown by. Days started passing him and he had no idea where or what he spent all of his time on. Mornings came as fast as the night and he found himself walking to nowhere most of the time. After being 'away' from Konoha for years, suddenly returning for obligations and unexpectedly being stripped of his duties left him restless. All of a sudden, he felt as if he had nothing to do.

The past couple of days, he had been waking up late – sleeping in. After he got out of bed, he'd make his way to the bathroom to freshen up, hop out the window to get breakfast and spend the rest of the afternoon up in one of the training ground trees doing his favourite thing – reading. The days seemed to repeat it self, and to be honest, it was boring. He hated bumming around doing nothing. It made him feel useless.

All this extra time also left him alone to his thoughts quite often. His thoughts suddenly didn't make sense to him. They jumped from recent missions to his everyday activities to the person who had somehow managed to squeeze herself into his life. The latter seemed to occupy more time than the others. He didn't know what was happening. Surely the Hokage knew that he was spending time with Sakura. Did she have anything to say to him about this? Was that why Sasuke took over? Yet, she seemed fine when he took time off to look after her. Was that for his benefit? How did Sakura feel when he left her there with Sasuke? Did she enjoy her time with him? Had he been able to help her out at all? How would she be able to deal with him knowing about her loss and suddenly disappearing? He had all these questions that he had no answers to. As each day passed, the questions would pile up and by the end of each day, all of his thinking didn't bring him to any conclusions.

_I need something to do; I need to get out of here._

His prayers were answered as a knock could be heard on his door and a scroll was delivered to him. The mission required him to leave tomorrow morning, and to Kakashi, nothing better could have happened. He immediately started to study the scroll and prepared to leave for the next day.

* * *

Waking up at the break of dawn, he got ready for his mission. This was the first time in a while that the copy-ninja felt relieved to be leaving for another mission. He strolled down the street and grabbed breakfast on the way to the gates.

It was one of those summer days when the days were hot and the nights were cool. The air was heavy and the moisture was making it hard to breathe through. Even though the sun should be rising, the thick clouds hid it. It seemed like a huge storm was going to come soon.

_The weather must be mocking me._

This was definitely not the best day to be going out on a mission. Even for an elite ninja, with such murky weather, it's hard to travel far without getting tired.

Dashing out of the village, he started to make his way to the town that needed his help. It was a small job that he could take care of by himself. The town was being threatened by multiple groups of bandits and being the only Jounin who was not occupied, he had been called to go. He knew that something like this could be easily handled by two Chuunins, but he couldn't have been gladder to go.

He couldn't decide whether he wanted to finish this job fast or not. The town needed him by tonight and he could make it there in a couple of hours since he woke up so early this morning. Hopping through the trees and avoiding multiple branches, he decided that he'll finish this fast so he can find something more advance to do. After all, he couldn't help but to think back on what has happened between him and Sakura. The mission wasn't distracting him enough and the pink haired ninja kept on popping up in his mind.

Looking up to the sky, he let out a huge sigh and decided to take a break by the stream.

_What the hell…_

He looked at his reflection and he had to admit that he looked tired. Maybe taking a break from looking after her was a good idea. He needed to clear his mind anyways.

Picking up his stuff he continued his journey to the town that was miles away. The sun was now starting to set and the sky lit up in a hazy orange glow.

Reaching the town, he found that the situation had been more serious than he thought. The bandits had apparently decided to attack early today and half the town was already up in flames. Things were chaotic. Casting a simple water spell, he put the fire out and searched for the bandits. Many people had been slaughtered and screams filled the air. He immediately regretted being relieved to go on this mission.

Children were running around trying to find their parents while lovers were trying to find each other. Kakashi instantly felt regret for letting Sasuke take over his job with looking after Sakura. Sakura just lost her parents and even though he, himself was not the best person to be comforting someone like Sakura; he was sure that he would be much more suitable than Sasuke. At least he had years of experience with dealing with the lost of loved ones. Putting two people who had family problems together was just asking for trouble, even if one didn't know that the other one had such problems. He should be there for her.

Chaos continued to happen as Kakashi ran around trying to do his best to help out. Kakashi's head snapped around as he heard a piercing scream. His mismatched eyes met a flash of emerald.

His heart stopped.

The emerald quickly faded to pitch black and disappeared as the small child closed her eyes. Life escaped her as the bandit moved away. Quickly, the Sharingan user dashed towards the bandit and killed him with one movement. Without hesitation, he continued to assassinate most of the bandits that had been causing terror. Chasing down each bandit that he saw, he quickly ended their life with a quick slit from his kunai.

Looking around, he saw many people trying to comfort each other. Silent sobs filled the air and he suddenly felt out of place. Turning around, he found an elder by himself so he helped him up. Taking him back to his house, he found that the elder had no children and that his wife had passed away a couple years ago. Kakashi bandaged his wounds as well as he could and the silver haired ninja was offered a place to stay for the night. He was about to decline when thunder rolled in and rain started to pour. With a sigh, he decided to take up the offer. The rain continued to pour throughout dinner time and when he headed to bed, the wind was stronger than before.

_I suppose it was a good idea that I stayed._

Lying in bed, flashbacks of today's events filled his mind. He was an assassin and he had no problems carrying out his job. He wasn't sure why he was so bothered, it wasn't like he hasn't seen this before. Flashes of crying children and frantic lovers seemed to be highlighted more than most of the other events. He had been through most of the things that had occurred, yet - why was the crying and the screaming disturbing him more and more with each thought?

_It was those eyes._

The emerald eyes got him. His heart pounded harder against his chest each time he thought of those emerald eyes. That girl had the brightest emerald eyes and in a split second, colour was spilt and the colour escaped her.

Her screams haunted him and he could remember her face turning pale white while the warmth and colour of her lips escaped her faster with each passing second. The bright emerald eyes turned dark and her red hair wrapped around her face in a tangled mess as she fell motionless on the floor.

Then it hit him.

He was afraid. Afraid that he would never see his favourite pair of emerald eyes again. He had never been so afraid before. For the first time today, his thoughts made sense.

The house shook silently as he turned and tossed. With each thunder roll and sheet of rain that slapped against his window, the more on edge he got.

_I'm heading back to Konoha – first thing in the morning._

* * *

For some reason, I'm having major writer's block for this story. It seems so much easier to write Daybreak, maybe it's because it's in first person and very applicable to my life. I just wrote the BEST CHAPTER (in my opinion) for it, it had a nice atmosphere (it's not up yet though.)

I still love KakaSaku, and I need to start daydreaming more about them. Sorry for the long wait, this took me forever to write, even though I seriously feel like this chapter **sucked. **I really had no idea where I was heading with this for the first two sections, but I hoped that I was able to turn it around at the end.

Anyways, that's my little blog. I didn't get a chance to edit that much, so I'm sorry if there are any stupid mistakes that I've made. If there are any, please tell me!

Any feedback on this chapter would be greatly appreciated!


	8. Nightmare

**Catching Up – Chapter 8**

_Kurai-Hisaki_

**Disclaimer: Naruto belongs to Masashi Kishimoto.**

* * *

Kakashi was awake before the sun reached the horizon line. Leaving a thank-you note and some ointment for the elder's wounds, he silently opened the door and slipped out of the house. His surroundings could exactly be described as 'after the storm.' The sun was starting to shine brightly and no clouds were in sight. A slight cool breeze blew against his silver locks and his ears picked up a faint sound of birds chirping. It was amazing how everything almost seemed peaceful – almost.

Many houses had been burnt to the ground and the townspeople were cleaning up. Some people came up to him to thank him, but he merely brushed it off saying that it was part of his job. There were a few who had stayed up all night burying the people who they had lost, and still continued to do so. It was saddening to see this, even though he had seen this scene so many times throughout his life.

Kakashi wandered around until he found her; the girl who had kept him up late into the night. She was in the same position as when he last saw her. No one had picked her up or buried her. He suddenly knew that she had probably been the last survivor in her family and with her dressed in rags, he knew that she had never been cared for. Walking over, he gently touched her. Her pale skin was now frozen cold and blood was matted on her face. After using a bit of water to clean her up, he lifted her as her limbs and bright red hair hung lifelessly. He suddenly longed to see a pair of emerald eyes. He carried her over to the graves that had been set up, helped bury her and paid his respects. Even though he desperately wanted to go back to Konoha, he decided to help the town out. It was something that he had never felt like he had to do, but for some reason, the scene was too depressing and for some reason, it pulled at his heart more than usual. After helping out the town with the burials for the next couple of hours, he decided that he longed to go back to Konoha even more.

It was funny how people worked. When he was there, he longed to be away, and now that he was miles away from Konoha, he wished to be back. He was experiencing new feelings for the first time in years. He had never wished so badly that he was back in Konoha, looking after the person he should be looking after. He supposed that this mission had cleared his mind in a way, and even though he regretted being relieved to be on this mission, he had to be thankful that he knew what he wanted now.

He wanted to be there for Sakura. He didn't want her to be like that girl that haunted him last night, with those saddened and fearful eyes. He wanted Sakura to be happy and carefree, just like when he met her.

The trip back to Konoha had been longer than he had expected. With the lack of sleep, he felt as if he was in a dream as he wandered around the forest. He was thankful when the gates of the village made its way to his view, and that he was unharmed. It was the first time that he had been so unable to focus, he was glad that he hadn't been ambushed. He knew that he could have been seriously injured if he had. Walking through the gates of Konoha, he noticed that the village seemed calmer than usual. The normal noisy busy streets were no where to be seen even though it was a bright and sunny day. There was an undertone of hushed voices and the once lively village felt a bit eerie and creepy. He felt a slight chill. Something seemed strange but Kakashi chose to ignore it. There were little people walking around and the people who opened the shops didn't seem to be too willing to sell and do business today. Wasting no time, he headed to his apartment; he stripped, showered, changed and cleaned his equipment while heating something fast in the microwave for an early dinner. He was going to see Sakura after.

He was steps away from sitting down when a knock was heard at his door. Opening the door he came face to face with Sasuke – a surprised Sasuke.

"Yo."

"You're home? I thought you were on a mission."

"Just got back a couple hours ago, what's up?" Kakashi also wanted to ask 'where's Sakura?' but he decided that wasn't really in his character to do so – to care for his ex-students in that way, especially in front of Sasuke. He was going to go visit her after anyways and being the patient guy that he was, he decided that waiting a couple minutes longer couldn't kill him.

The Uchiha started to fidget. He never fidgeted, something was wrong. His eyes shifted from Kakashi's gaze to his own feet and started to look at everything except into the eye of Kakashi. Then with a sigh, he looked down and glared at the gap in between them.

"I was hoping that you wouldn't be home so I wouldn't have to tell you, but it's _her._"

With a cold voice Kakashi responded quickly, "What about her?"

A low whisper escaped Sasuke.

"_She's in the hospital._"

Kakashi's eye widened.

"You mean she's helping out at the hospital right?"

Sasuke slowly shook his head. Shock could be seen in the lone onyx eye as Kakashi stumbled a couple steps back until he sat down.

Shock overcame the both of them for different reasons. Sasuke had never seen his sensei this way, he was usually so composed, calm and collected – what happened? He hadn't thought that this news would affect him so much. When he was told to tell him, he had dreaded it because Sakura was precious to the both of them and no one would like to hear news that their teammate was in the hospital, but he had thought that the Copy Ninja would take it in like he usually does. He thought that he would say that he would visit her later, close the door on him and get back to whatever it was he was doing. He was sure that Kakashi have had teammates that ended up in the hospital before, so why was this affecting him so much more than usual? Sasuke continued to stare at Kakashi as he zoned out in front of him, while one thought repeated itself in Kakashi's head.

_How could this be happening?_

Kakashi was so afraid last night that something was going to happen, he made his decision to come back as soon as possible, and thought that everything would be okay. He had pushed that nightmare out of his mind and thought that he could leave it in the past. Why was it coming back to haunt him? What was going on? He knew something bad was going to happen, but he hadn't expected this. Those emerald eyes were trying to tell him something, the eerie silence of the village had to have hinted something and he came back too late. Why hadn't he gone straight to her?

Kakashi met Sasuke's gaze and with a stoic voice he asked, "Sasuke, tell me what happened."

With another shake of his head, Sasuke replied, "I think it's better if you find out another time. You seriously look like you need some rest."

A flash of silver disappeared and appeared inches before Sasuke. Kakashi thrusted him against a wall and coldly demanded, "Tell me what happened to Sakura."

It was then that Sasuke knew that Kakashi cared more about Sakura than anyone else. He had never seen Kakashi lose his cool over something like this or rather lose his temper over anything. From what he knew, Kakashi had never showed much of any serious emotions after Rin and Obito died. He was always so aloof after their deaths – drifting here and there, whenever and wherever he felt like. He didn't care about much besides his duties. Sasuke would have been glad for Sakura and that someone was able to care deeply for her, if it weren't for the circumstances that stood now. Unaffected by the Copy Ninja's actions, Sasuke calmly started to explain what had happened.

"As you know, I was left to take care of her after you and Naruto left that night. At first I thought everything was fine and that she was getting better. She would smile every once in a while and we would talk about random things over meals – as much as I could talk anyways. Naruto came over as much as he could, but he had been very busy these past days… It just seems like Sakura changed, her smile doesn't reach her eyes anymore. One day, she suddenly told me that she didn't need someone to look after her 24/7 and said that I was allowed to go train with Naruto every once in a while. Respecting her wishes and with her being a medic and all, I thought it would be okay to listen to her."

Kakashi let out a slight sigh and continued to look intently at Sasuke.

_So Sasuke had noticed that she was different, no surprise there - with him being so observant and being a genius._

Sasuke continued – he had never talked so much before, but felt this was appropriate for him to do so.

"It was one of those nights when Sakura wanted to be left alone. I knew that I had days like that too, so I did what she wanted me to do. I left her alone and told her that I would be back to check up on her. That night was the night when it poured, so I figured she'd stay home and I figured that I'll check up on her the first thing in the morning. When I went back early the next morning, she was no where to be found in her apartment, so I checked around the village asking around to see if she had been around for breakfast or something… I never found her until I walked past the memorial… When I got to her, she was unconscious, frozen and soaking wet so I took her straight to the hospital."

Sasuke looked down, his voice became quieter. Surprisingly, there was a hint of emotion being shown.

"I think it was around the time you were back in town when I was told that Sakura's condition got worse. I was waiting outside the emergency room and they told me that her fever had returned and had gotten a lot worse than before. Apparently her medicine hadn't been helping and no trace of it could be found in her system. They said that it was going to take at least a couple of days before she would wake up, but no one really knows - "

After releasing Sasuke, Kakashi coolly stated, "If something happens to her…"

Kakashi never finished that sentence, nor did he stop to wait for Sasuke's response as he dashed out his window and sprinted towards Sakura's apartment. Sasuke stared at his back before deciding to follow Kakashi.

He knew that it was his fault for leaving Sakura alone, but what could he do? He couldn't have gone against her wishes when he knew that she was so much more knowledgeable when it comes to health and medic related things. And knowing that if he didn't listen to her, she'd only become angrier and would have possibly punched him out the door. He had to admit, that he cared for her too, but he had always had problems understanding people. He had wanted to be alone at times, so it was only fair that she got her alone time as well – wasn't it?

The silver haired ninja broke into Sakura's apartment and went straight into her bedroom. He started to search through her drawers, closet and desk. Pulling her clothes out as he went, he continued to search underneath her books and papers. He even searched under the pillows and all Sasuke could do was watch. He watched Kakashi move from the bedroom to the kitchen to the living room and when he couldn't find what he wanted, he went into her bathroom to search through her cabinets.

Sasuke stood at the doorway vaguely wondering about what was going on. He didn't ask as he knew Kakashi wouldn't answer. A loud slam could be heard and Sasuke peered in to see a shaking Kakashi kneeling over something. His silver hair hung messily around face. When all movement stopped and silence filled the air, Sasuke looked at Kakashi and saw that he was looking at some substances in his hands.

_Her medicine… She never took them._

With a swift movement, Kakashi punched the nearest wall and continued to clench his fists.

He muttered to himself, "What the hell was she thinking..."

Sasuke jumped as his eyes opened a little wider than usual. He had never jumped before either, today was full of firsts for him. When had he ever shown any type of emotions before? Then again, when had Kakashi? Sakura affected the both of them more than he would have liked to admit, but he had the mind to think that this was getting a little out of hand. He knew Kakashi wasn't thinking rationally but he decided that he had to do something before his ex-sensei completely lost it.

"Kakashi… let's go see her. Let's go see Sakura."

Kakashi's head snapped up and his eye met his. His facial features relaxed at the mention of her name. His breathing slowly returned to normal and he turned to face Sasuke. The calm voice that Sasuke once knew could be heard again as Kakashi spoke.

"Sorry… I forgot you were here. Sorry… if I scared you."

"Don't worry, let's go."

With that, the two Sharingan users hopped out of her apartment and headed to the hospital.

Pictures of the motionless red haired child flashed in Kakashi's mind. Pictures of messy, matted hair and unmoving limbs, and the sounds of the child's silent screams suddenly sounded hauntingly real. Lifeless emerald eyes in his thoughts stared back at him and he realized that this was no longer a dream.

It had become a real nightmare.

* * *

I know that you all saw this coming - Gomen, ne. I feel like my creativity is going down the drain - stupid starting of school.

Kakashi is getting more and more out of character in this story. I apologize. I also think Sasuke is a little bit out of character too, but I wasn't sure how I wanted him to be after he returned to Konoha. Gah, it's so hard to write Sasuke in character since he doesn't talk much. Was he a bit too nice for his character?

I wrote this chapter right after the previous one, but this was being edited and reviewed over and over because I felt that it wasn't good enough. For some reason, I just don't feel the emotions that Kakashi is feeling when I read this over and over…

Hopefully this chapter isn't as disappointing as the previous one, and hope that you all enjoyed it.


	9. Kakashi

**Catching Up – Chapter 9**

_Kurai-Hisaki_

**Disclaimer: Naruto belongs to Masashi Kishimoto. **

* * *

_- Kakashi's POV -_

Hopping swiftly on the rooftops, I felt the cold wind brush by my face as I rushed down to the hospital. Although I would never express it in words, I was thankful that Sasuke was here. I looked over and when my eyes met with his, I knew that he received my message. There were no needs for words between us - that was what I always liked about Sasuke. Even though we both had problems, there was a silent understanding between us. If it wasn't for him, I think I would have lost it. Maybe I was just thankful that someone was here when this happened.

Could I really have blamed Sasuke for what happened? Probably not, knowing Sakura's temper and personality, this was going to happen anyways. The Uchiha probably did the best he can, and I can't blame him – I wasn't there for her either. I was guilty of wanting to leave Konoha without seeing her again, and for not trying to find her sooner even though I knew that something was wrong.

Turning a swift corner, we both dashed up to the hospital reception desk and the medic at the front already knew who we were looking for. Being pointed in the right direction, we both made our way up to Sakura's room.

As I got closer and closer, I felt that it was getting harder and harder to breathe. What was wrong with me? With each step that I took, my gloved hands shook. I saw Sasuke's faint figure in front of me as he walked ahead and turned into Sakura's room. This wasn't me. Hatake Kakashi didn't act this way. He doesn't get scared… so why now?

Holding the doorknob to Sakura's hospital room, I felt myself pause. Sudden flashes of pale white skin made its way to my vision.

_Lifeless emerald eyes… Why didn't she take the pills?_I can't do this. What happens if I lose her too? I can't lose another teammate, especially one that I was responsible for. My knees gave way as I kneeled in front of the door. How did I deal with this the first time – all the other times after that? Was it the same?

_The first time was guilt… what was this?_

I heard the door open as I looked up to see Sasuke opening the door quietly. Motioning for me to step into the room, he patiently opened the door for me. I looked at him.

_He has really grown up... Was I weak for depending on a former student? No, he is my equal now.__  
_  
I finally got up and took a step into the room.

A breath, that I didn't know that I had been holding, was exhaled through my mask as I saw Sakura.

_Her cheeks are pink…_

I never knew that one could be so relieved just by looking at someone's cheeks. She was paler than usual, but the undertone of pink was there. Her eyes were still closed but at least I knew that she was alive. Barely, but surely, she was breathing. I made my way over to her and knelt by her side. Her hair was soft…

_Not matted…_

I gently caressed her cheek.

_She was warm…_

Thank God…

I exhaled a sigh of relief and closed my eyes to absorb the information.

_She'll be okay…_

I took a couple steps back to grab a chair before pulling close beside her bed.

"Do you love her?"

I swiftly turned my head around to face the source of the question. Sasuke's onyx-coloured eyes stared back at me as he simply asked again, "Do you love her?"

Love…? How do I answer that? Do I love her? She was my student, I cared for her. What were the consequences if I said yes? How would people react? Was that why I was so scared for her – more than normal?

What was love?

"If you cannot answer that question, there will be a day when she will leave with someone else. Can you bear to watch that?"

Since when did Sasuke become so wise? My gaze never left Sakura's face as I continued to think. I use to think that I could solve any problem that came my way, why am I such an idiot when it came to matters like this?

After a long moment of silence, I replied, "I care for her."

"If you don't love her, you know that I will eventually take her from you, right?"

I looked up at him and turned back to Sakura. I wasn't surprised that he would say this – after all, Sakura had loved him and she would be his perfect choice to resurrect his clan. They were teammates, friends, and could be potential lovers if they both wanted it. I knew that this would be coming from the moment he started to take care of her. Would he be more suitable for Sakura after all? Why would I ever think that she would want to be with me in the first place?

After deciding that Sakura would be okay for a while, I instructed Sasuke to look after her. I escaped the room and made my way to the hallway. I needed to clear my head – too many things happened tonight.

"Kakashi, my office - now."

I turned to see the Godaime motioning me to follow her. Without hesitation; nor choice, my feet carried me to her office.

* * *

"Shut the door."

Respecting her wishes, I closed the door behind me and stood across from her, waiting for her to speak. I vaguely wondered what this was about. It couldn't be about the mission as the report wasn't late, but my thoughts were cut short as she wasted no time in asking what she wanted to know.

"What is this that I'm hearing about you and my apprentice?"

"I do not know what you mean."

"Don't play dumb with me Hatake. You know very well what I am saying. During the time that I assigned you to look after Sakura, have you developed feelings for her?"

Why was everyone asking me this question tonight?

"How would you like me to answer?"

"Don't be a smartass, just answer the question. No one's judging you"

"To be honest, I don't know."

"How do you feel about her and the situation at hand right now?"

Not knowing better, I spoke the truth. After all, Tsunade probably knew better about the situation that I'm going through better than myself. "I was afraid when she was hospitalized. I almost lost it on Sasuke when he wouldn't tell me what happened. I blamed him for what happened. I've gained the feeling of fear, back when I was walking to the room she was staying in, and was relieved when I found that she wasn't in the terrible situation that I thought she was in. I think I've gained too many lost emotions tonight. I care for her, Tsunade-sama. That is all."

"Then I give you the permission to continue to care for her. I know for a fact that out of everyone around her, she needs you the most. You've been through her situation, and even though you are anti-social, you will be able to help her. Do not worry so much about what others think. If you care for her, then do so properly. Do not leave her and do not doubt your own abilities."

"I do not understand."

"I can see that you are more important to her than you realize, for a genius – you sure are stupid when it comes to her. Figure it out yourself - this is amusing. And if you hurt her, I will kick your ass so hard you won't be able to walk straight for a year. That is all, get out."

Before my mind could register what happened, I already found myself out of the Godaime's office and walking back to the hospital.

Okay, so I wasn't stupid. I knew that I cared about her more than usual. I knew that it wasn't because of Obito and Rin's death that I was extra scared about Sakura. I knew that Obito and Rin would wish for my happiness, I had gotten over that a while ago. But would Sakura accept someone like me - anti-social, old, perverted and awkward? I know that Tsunade had made a good point, and with her wisdom, I should just listen.

I've always had that problem, self confidence. I always doubted my abilities and always thought that I would let others down. Was this a chance with Sakura that I was willing to take?

With a somewhat clearer mind, I opened the door to Sakura's room and as I entered I felt Sasuke look up at me. He has been here for a while now, and with a slight smile he stood up to face me.

I glanced at Sakura's still figure. There was still that slight chance that she would never wake up, but I was willing to wait for her. I realized during the time that when I first returned to Konoha, Sakura had changed. She had grown stronger. I've always known that she had grown stronger physically. When she fell sick, I felt responsible for taking care of her. During this time, I also found out that she had grown stronger emotionally. She was able to pick herself up, and smile genuinely at me. When I left, I missed her, and now that I have returned - I realized that she was the only thing that I would possibly want to live for.

"I thought about what you said. I'm sorry, but I can't give her to you."

A smile ghosted over Sasuke's lips as he nodded as if he understood my thoughts. He glanced at Sakura once more as he quietly left the room.

I took my place beside Sakura once more. It felt nice to be here, and I wouldn't want to be anywhere else. I reached for her hand and without hesitation, I held hers in mine. It had been a long day, and due to the lack of sleep for the past couple of days, I felt fatigue wash over me. It was comforting to know that Sakura was beside me. She will get better, and until that day comes, I'll wait for her to wake up.

After all, maybe the only thing that she was living for – was me.

* * *

Sorry for the sudden change in POV. I just felt that it would be easier to write his feelings in first person. And with Sakura in her condition, I thought that it would be appropriate to write in Kakashi's eyes. Should I write future stories/another chapters in first person? Is it a better read? Is Kakashi too dumb? *HAHA* – I always thought that he should be smarter, but wasn't really sure if I should make him extra slow when coming to things about Sakura.

Also, I'm dealing with weird mood changes and the music I'm listening to is highly influencing how I write – sorry for any inconsistencies in character personality. I'm still working on that.

I'm thankful for all your support – even when I was down with writer's block, many of you were here to give me feedback and ideas, thank you so much.

Oh, on the side note – I'm back in school again for my study term, but I'll try to update as often as I can.  
**Also, Anbu Cosplay Pictures (include some KakaSaku ones) are up on my Deviant Art! Please check it out - link is on my profile! **

Thanks!


	10. Courage: Part 1

**Catching Up – Chapter 10**

_Kurai-Hisaki_

**Disclaimer: Naruto belongs to Masashi Kishimoto.**

* * *

The air hung moist and heavy as one of Kakashi's eyes slid open. He had wished to be by Sakura's side and stayed there overnights regardless of the nurses telling him to leave. As hard as they tried, none of them could deny his request. Whenever Sakura made a small gasp or noise, he would snap his head up to look at her – in hopes that she woke up. Throughout the night, he could only feel his hope slowly slipping away.

He hated the hospital. He hated the smell; he hated the atmosphere of tiredness and death. He hated everything about it – the hopelessness and the sadness. He would never come here even if he had a giant hole through his stomach. Nevertheless this was Sakura and he continued to sit by her.

This occurred over three days and he never left her side. Naruto and Sasuke occasionally stopped by to visit her and to give him food. More than once they told him to go get some rest at home, or to get freshened up, but he refused to leave. At this point, even Naruto knew that something happened between Kakashi and Sakura, but he wasn't about to say anything about it at the moment. He figured that he will ask Sasuke what happened since he was there at the start of all this. He also figured that something was up with Sakura for this to happen to her. She was usually so strong and as a medic, she would never let herself fall ill this way.

It was only when Tsunade came in to check up on Sakura, did Kakashi leave her side to stand outside the room. After her checkups, she informed the jounin that something was preventing her from healing. It was like her chakra channels had been blocked off internally, so there's nothing they could do to wake her. The only thing they can do is hope for Sakura to be strong enough to heal herself enough to wake up. Her condition was stable in terms of her pulse, temperature and colours, but whether she can wake up or not, is up to her.

During these times, Tsunade would pat Kakashi on the shoulder while he sat by her. As much as she knew that he cared about her, she also knew that he needed his own health.

"Hatake, get cleaned up – you look like shit. You wouldn't want Sakura to worry about you when she wakes up, only to find you half dead."

Kakashi could ignore other's people's orders, but as much as he would like to stay by Sakura's side, this was one order that he can't ignore. He supposed that she was right anyways – as usual. He gave a sad smile as he thought to himself _'like teacher, like apprentice – always so demanding.'_ But he knew that they were both only looking out for him on the inside. He also knew that to a common bystander, he looked the same as he always did – a mask and messy hair, but he felt like a mess inside and was sure that his close comrades could see that. The one time that he went back to his apartment was to take a quick shower. Looking in the mirror, he could see darker circles under his eyes and his chin started to itch from not being shaved in a couple of days. He cleaned himself up and rushed straight back to the hospital in less than 15 minutes.

He continued to sit by her wordlessly. He didn't have comforting and encouraging words to say. What could he say? He had never been given the opportunity to sit beside a comrade in a hospital before – however, he sat glancing at her every now and then – hoping that he would see her emerald eyes.

* * *

It was around early morning when Sakura started to cough heavily and this alarmed Kakashi. She had never coughed continually like this throughout the night, and her breathing quickened. He instantly went to call the nearest nurse, and when he came back he saw that she started coughing out a dark liquid.

_Blood._

The nurse quickly went to work as more nurses were alarmed and called into the room. In the distressed and busy atmosphere, the silver-haired ninja only found that he was in the way. Eventually one of the nurses pushed him out of the room and he found himself alone in the empty hallway. His acute hearing picked up on a noise that occurred inside the room.

Kakashi never knew that such a simple and small sound could cause him such distress.

It was a simple flat line buzz that rang throughout the room in a continuous wave.

His gloved hands instantly reached for the doorknob, but the door flew opened before he made contact with it. A second passed as a stretcher was wheeled out of the room. Words like 'emergency, contact the Godaime' and a whole bunch of medic terms reached his ears. But the one phrase that stood out the most was 'heart stopped.'

Hearing this phrase made his own heart stop.

_This couldn't be happening…_

He stood there watching the group's backs as they rushed the stretcher around a corner.

He heard Tsunade's voice as she ran down the hall after the nurses towards the Emergency Units.

"Don't just stand there Hatake."

What else could he do? He wasn't trained in healing, was there nothing he can do for Sakura? The feeling of hopelessness and uselessness rushed back to him and to the scene when Obito had died. He can't let this happen again, he wasn't strong enough to deal with the same guilt twice.

He heard his own footsteps taking him towards where Sakura had went. When he got there, he found that the blinds were closed and calmed voices talked in a rapid pace to each other behind the door. He knew that he shouldn't go in there but his hands and feet didn't listen to his mind.

Opening the door, he saw the nurses making reports and using their chakra to heal her internal injuries. Voices and commands drifted to his ears as he stood hear the door. No one cared whether he was there or not, they were all trying to heal their head medic, comrade and friend.

"It's not working! Her body isn't responding to our chakra. Something's attacking on the inside and she doesn't have the chakra to fight it off!"

"Try another portal, there's got to be a way to get in there."

"Her heart is not responding!"

"She's losing heat – her temperature is dropping!"

"How is her chakra not helping her? It's like she doesn't want to be healed."

"Inject this in her to open a portal, you have to try! Don't give up."

"Hai!"

_No… you can't do this to me, Sakura…_

Kakashi's hushed voice whispered repeatedly to himself, "Sakura, you can't do this to me…"

_Beep._

"Portal opened! One heart beat!"

"She's not accepting our chakra! It's like there's something in her body trying to force our chakra back out."

The vision of lifeless emerald eyes and deathly pale skin returned to Kakashi and suddenly, he wasn't sure if he was shaking because of fear or anger. He couldn't save her. He couldn't save another comrade, teammate, and friend – possibly the person he was going to spend the rest of his life with. What good was he? He couldn't do anything for her.

"Hatake, get over here."

Kakashi's eyes snapped up to meet the Godaime's honeyed ones.

"What's your blood type?"

Dumbfounded, he replied with a confused answer. "What?"

"Blood type, Hatake, hurry!"

The wheels in his brain started turning and he quickly answered, "O."

The moment that alphabet left his lips, several pairs of eyes were on him. Two nurses hurriedly dragged him out the door. When he came back, he was a bag or two short on blood. They hooked the red liquid beside Sakura's stretcher and started to hook her up with it.

After that, they followed the red liquid with their chakra.

"Her body is opening up for the blood, get the chakra in!"

Tsunade stepped back from Sakura and wondered out loud.

"What's happening? Why is her body only accepting the blood and not our chakra?"

Kakashi looked over to Sakura. Her lips were pale and her cheeks were no longer pink. Blood was matted to her hair.

"No… Sakura… wake up…"

Before he realized what he was doing, his feet took him to the side of the bed.

_Beep._

By now, the medics had stepped back and rather than pumping in useless chakra – it was only tiring them out and the chakra only burned the skin. They tried to figure out another method to speed up her heart beat to its normal pace. She jolted as she coughed lifelessly

"Don't give up, Sakura!"

_Beep. Beep._

Quick clicks of Tsunade's heel could be heard as she rushed over to Kakashi.

"Hatake, activate your Sharingan and copy this."

Not surprised of being confused anymore, he lifted his headband, activated his Sharingan and watched the blonde force a steady stream of chakra into Sakura through any openings that she had, to the inside of her body. The Sharingan spun as he observed the portals being opened and the level of chakra being pushed in. He also saw where the Godaime's chakra stopped and where it was being blocked. His eyes widened as he realized what the Godaime wanted him to do and he quickly shook his head.

"I can't do that, you know I can't. I have not been trained in any medical ninjutsu, I will not put Sakura's life in more risk than it already is!"

"Give yourself more credit! You can do this! I trust you whole heartedly that you won't let Sakura die."

"Tsunade-sama, I can't –"

"Do it! She will die if you don't! Her body isn't accepting anything we are giving her except your blood; perhaps she'll accept your chakra too. We don't have time!"

With shaky hands, Kakashi placed his gloved hands over her chest. His breathing laboured as he tried his hardest to focus his chakra.

_Beep. Beep._

"You can do it. Her heart rate sped up just knowing that you were here, you can do this. You aren't the copy-ninja for nothing. You have to get your chakra to the place where mine was being rejected by her body!"

Kakashi tried to reassure himself that he could do this. One wrong move and he could damage her heart completely – his chakra can be pushed up the wrong portal and crush her heart. A too strong stream will burst the portal, yet one that's not strong enough won't do her any good. Perspiration formed on his forehead as he started to push the chakra through her.

_Don't die on me Sakura, please!_

He knew that if she died by his hands, he will die too – he would make sure of it. A soft blue glow surrounded his hands as his chakra moulded around her organs. He couldn't believe the irony of this.

Hatake Kakashi, the former Anbu who had killed thousands with his ninjutsu, is now healing a medic with those very same hands that he had killed with.

Kakashi also never knew that such a small and simple sound coming from the same machine could bring him such relief.

_Beep. Beep. Beep._

"Tsunade-sama! Her heart rate! The chakra is being accepted."

"How is this possible?"

Kakashi could only stare back at her.

"Hatake, you are a wonder."

He kept on giving her chakra until he was told to stop and when he did – he collapsed on the floor beside her bed. He just sat there shaking. He knew that the world could see him at his weakest right now, and he couldn't give a care in the world. He just couldn't think about anything, except for the steady beeps on the machine. He had done it; he had done something for her – the impossible.

_I brought her back._

* * *

How was it? Too un-real? I know that it was a little out of the ordinary, but I felt like I liked Kakashi's character in this chapter.

I had to do research about blood types to know that Kakashi and Sakura both had type O – therefore they could donate to each other (lots of stuff can be explained by the positive and negative types, but I don't want to go into biology here since I suck at science.)

Sorry for the long wait!

Hope you all liked it!


	11. Courage: Part 2

**Catching Up – Chapter 11**

_Kurai-Hisaki_

I would like to thank everyone who has supported me and encouraged me with the reviews from the last chapter! **THANK YOU!** It really made me happy and got me through my crappy exam week. I've never gotten so many reviews for one chapter before – thank you so much!

I've been asked to do an update soon, so hopefully I didn't make you guys wait too long.

Hope this chapter don't disappoint.

**Disclaimer: Naruto belongs to Masashi Kishimoto.**

* * *

It was sunrise when Kakashi woke up in an unfamiliar room. Not being able to recall how he got there, he guessed that Tsunade had to carry him here and that he must have passed out after transferring his chakra to Sakura. He had stayed by her side after her situation had been stabilized. He had wanted to stay by her side the whole time, but he had also guessed that once he passed out, Tsunade took it as an involuntary agreement that he would go rest up properly.

After all it wasn't every day that he transferred chakra into someone to save them – rather, he had never transferred chakra like that at all. Suddenly he started to recall the events of what happened. Feeling groggy and gross, he ran his hand through his messy hair and swung his legs off the bed. Looking around he realized that this was one of the guest rooms that they had in the hospital for anyone who needed to stay overnight – they were usually used by loved ones who were here to visit. Never had he thought that he would be the one to use one. If anything, He had always thought that he would be the one in the hospital room. Making his way to the door, he casually made his way down the hall towards Sakura's room. During this process, he had found out that he had been out for longer than expected and a couple more days have passed.

_Am I really that exhausted?_

He didn't feel exhausted, but maybe he was still running on adrenaline.

Upon walking into her room, he noticed something was off. No matter how tired he was, he had always been an observant man. The first thing he noticed was her hand and that it had moved from its previous position. He was sure that her right hand had been by her side before he passed out yesterday. He had made sure that she was safe and back in her room before he lost consciousness. When he walked closer, he noticed that the hand was now slightly towards him – like it was reaching out to him. When he looked up, he also noticed that her head was slightly tilted in his direction as well.

He wanted to feel hopeful that maybe, just maybe Sakura had woken up. He had been at the hospital for far too long and he was beginning to feel irritated. He knew that he shouldn't feel that way, but for some reason he did. The Godaime had told him that it was up to Sakura whether she wanted to wake up or not. Following the incident where Kakashi had to pump his chakra into her, there had been no life-threatening danger. After feeling depressed and hopeless, he felt a bit angry about why Sakura hadn't woken up yet.

Sitting down, he moved his head closer to Sakura and resting it on her shoulder, he quietly mumbled – more to himself, "Why haven't you woken up yet? I hate this place… please wake up so I can get out of here…"

With a sigh, he rested his head there for a couple more seconds before getting up to look at Sakura's face. He was met with something that he had longed to see for so long.

_Emerald eyes._

His eye widened as he felt his mouth open on its own accord.

"Sakura…"

His questioning eyes searched hers for answers, but to his dismay, all she did was look at him with expressionless eyes. After a couple seconds, she had closed her eyes again and this left Kakashi more confused than ever. He figured that he was probably so tired that he was seeing things now.

This had felt like the longest week of his life.

* * *

It was pitched dark when Sakura finally opened her eyes again. Adjusting her blurred vision, she stared at the ceiling. From working at the hospital so much, she instantly knew where she was. Judging from the lack of light, she guessed that she must have woken up very early in the morning. Glancing over to the plain walls without moving her head, the clock read '4:25'.

_So… I'm alive?_

After using many efforts to move her head, she strained her neck to look at her side. There was the famous Hatake Kakashi – his bottom half on the chair and his top half laying beside Sakura's legs on the mattress. With a curious look, Sakura tried to lift her hands to touch him; however, her arms wouldn't move more than a couple centimetres away from her side. It seems as though she can move her fingers, but it took more effort to move her arms. After trying and failing several times, she gave up.

She vaguely wondered what had happened. If Kakashi was here, then something was wrong. She knew that the man wouldn't stay in a hospital even if his life depended on it, and she wasn't entirely sure why he would stay – surely, she was fine.

She looked at her ex-sensei for a couple more minutes. Even in the dark, she noticed that he seemed extremely exhausted and wearier than the last time that she saw him. His hair didn't have its usual spikes and it was in more of disarray than she had ever seen. He looked as if he hasn't slept properly for days. She had never seen him so worn out before. His eyes shifted as he slept and his eyebrows creased in the middle, as if he was worried about something. Silently she wondered what had happened, but decided that she will ask when she gets a chance to.

With her head slightly tilted towards Kakashi, she drifted back to sleep hoping she will be able to move when she woke up.

* * *

"SAKURA-CHAN!!!" was the first thing Kakashi heard when he opened his eyes.

Kakashi instantly moved back from the bed and leaned against his chair as Naruto hopped into the room. Looking over to the doorway, he also saw Sasuke standing there with a slight smirk. He wasn't as oblivious as Naruto and he had noticed that Kakashi had been resting beside Sakura. It had seems that he had realized that Kakashi was serious when he said that he wasn't going to give Sakura to him. To prove his point, Kakashi never let her side and Sasuke saw his determination. What could he say? Sasuke was happy for Kakashi as he knew that Sakura needed someone to truly love her and to truly take care of her.

During the time when he took care of her, she had always seemed so sad. For some reason, he knew that she would be happier if Kakashi took care of her. As much as he did not like to admit it, maybe Kakashi's lazy ass brought comfort to her, and as much as he did not like it, he also had to admit that Kakashi had been able to bring him comfort in times of trouble as well. Maybe it was just one of those traits that the perverted copy ninja had.

Now, if only she would get better.

Tears started to rain overdramatically down Naruto's cheeks as he pushed Kakashi out of the way to hold onto Sakura. He hugged her while gently shaking her.

"Sakura-chan! I've missed you! You're finally awake!! We've all been so worried; you don't know how worried we all were. Especially Kakashi-sensei! He's been here every day and every night for the past couple weeks! You almost scared us to death when Obaa-chan told us that your heart stopped! Even Sasuke was so worried that he wasn't focusing when I kicked his butt during…"

Then he fell silent and all that could be heard was the ventilation system and the quiet beeps beside Sakura's bed. It was then when he finally noticed that something was wrong.

When Tsunade came to her room to check up on her, Naruto asked what was going on while Kakashi intently anticipated some answers.

Looking over to the blonde then to the Jounin sitting on the chair, she started to explain. "As you already know, your chakra and blood brought her back when we had thought that we lost her. We still don't know what made her go into the state of her heart stopping in the first place. We have found out however that something had attacked her throat. It was probably that common cold virus that had evolved into something else when she went out into the rain, and turned into that fever. During the time when you were resting, Sakura had been able to open her eyes several times, but during all of these times it does not seem that she can respond to anything. I personally think that her body is adapting to your chakra and it will take some time before she can move her body again. Whether she can actually see while her eyes are opened is still a mystery. I do suspect that she can hear us though… as her body responded very slightly every time you talked to her."

Naruto just blinked while absorbing the information and Kakashi simply nodded.

"So all I can say is to keep talking to her to see how she will progress."

Making her way to Sakura's side, she rested her hand on her forehead and spoke to her.

"Sakura, you get better soon. It's been dead around the office without you there. Do you know how boring it is to have no one to argue with?"

If Sakura could smile, she would. She had heard every word that was being said and to be honest, she didn't feel as if she had been revived from the dead. She didn't feel sick aside from the fact that she can't move. She couldn't believe that it was Kakashi who had brought her back and most of all… she couldn't believe Kakashi had stayed with her for all this time. From what Tsunade had said, he had never left except for the times when he was commanded to go freshen up.

Most of all, she couldn't believe that her body accepted Kakashi's blood and Kakashi's chakra, while it didn't accept anyone else's. Her mind kicked itself into high gear.

_What did that mean?_

Being a highly trained medic, she knew that there was no way that her body could just accept another's chakra. Chakra was transferred either through wounds or any other openings from your body to the inside. Sakura didn't recall getting any open wounds. There was no way that the chakra could enter her system without burning her. There was no way her body could take one person's chakra without accepting anyone else's unless…

_Unless… that chakra is already in your system, _

And…

_The outside source is being accepted because your body had already accepted it once._

When had she ever accepted Kakashi's chakra before? She had concluded that the two chakra sources were simply attracted to each other because it belonged to the same owner… but the question was…

_How did Kakashi's chakra get there in the first place?_

She didn't understand. Her curiosity getting the better of her, she tried to sit up. This, of course, alarmed everyone in the room. Suddenly four pairs of eyes were on her and four pairs of feet made their way towards her bed. Tsunade already being by her side, gently held her so Sakura could sit. Sakura had never thought that sitting could be so hard. It felt like her body was on fire as she tried to keep her upper body upright and not to slouch over. It had never been so hard to keep her spine straight.

Opening her mouth to make an effort to speak, she realized she couldn't. Even after being offered water to drink through a straw, all that came out was a wheeze. She couldn't form words. It felt like something was blocking her throat. Her eyes widened and looked around as she started to panic.

Tsunade's voice comforted her as she explained. "Don't worry, once you feel better you'll be able to speak again. Do you have something important to tell us?"

With obvious hard work, she slightly shook her head.

"You should rest. Get better soon, you hear me?"

That being said, Tsunade gestured to everyone to leave so Sakura could rest. Stopping at Kakashi's side, she conversed with him. Sakura could see that Kakashi was slightly slouched while he talked to her shishou. With a pat on his shoulder, Tsunade left and Kakashi made his way back to the chair that was beside Sakura's bed.

Looking directly into her eyes, he held on to the edge of the bed – as if he was debating whether or not to touch her in any way. All of a sudden, holding her hands while she was awake seemed awkward to him. Showing affections seemed… strange. He suddenly didn't know how to act around her… when did he start having this problem?

_Oh right… when you realized that you fell in love with your past student._

Sakura seemed to understand his dilemma as she shakily moved her hand closer to his. Even though she knew that her comforting face wasn't showing, but she had hoped that it would show through her eyes. He seemed like he got the message when he spoke.

"What are you so worried for? You're the one in the hospital for days."

Sakura merely answered his question while pointing her finger to him.

"I'm fine, you need to get better."

A slight tilt of her head was his response.

"I'm worried."

Her head stayed where it was. His head lowered.

"I've… never been so worried."

When her head stayed in the same position, he had guessed that she wanted him to explain. He didn't know what to do. He knew that telling her now that he loved her was a bad idea, especially when she can't move or respond in any way. Being the bright woman that she was, perhaps she already knew that he loved her – no one, especially him would stay in a hospital beside someone they didn't care for or love. But at the same time, he wasn't sure how she'd respond if he did tell her. What happens if all she felt was that he was an old pervert? It hadn't seemed that way from the times that they had shared together, but while he was confident on the battlefield, he had never been so afraid in this department. How did relationships work?

His thoughts were interrupted as he felt her hand touch his. He looked down to see Sakura pointing to a pen. His eyes widened once again as he realized that Sakura wanted to write – she wanted to tell him something! Pushing his chair back, he quickly walked out of the room and returned with a piece of paper. He grabbed the pen and gave the items to her. He gently lifted Sakura's hand and helped her hold the pen in her hand.

Laboured breathing could be heard as she lifted her hand to the paper. With shaky and slow lines, Kakashi could make out the word: _How._

Being curious, Kakashi asked, "How what?"

He didn't say anything else as he received a glance from Sakura. He got from it that she was annoyed. With a chuckle, he muttered a 'sorry' to her and waited patiently for her to finish drawing on the paper. After several drops of the pen, sighs of frustration and minutes later, she finally stopped writing. Kakashi peered down to read her messy writing: _How chakra in me?_

He slowly looked up at her and saw her looking back at him with her finger pointing at him, and then, slowly pointed to herself.

Kakashi was no medic, but he certain knew the ways of how chakra worked and how it can be transferred to people. From the curious and slightly suspicious look that Sakura was giving him, he assumed that Sakura also knew how chakra worked. He mentally slapped himself. Of course she did, she was a medic-nin - plus she had the best chakra control when she was a kid. He was surprised that Tsunade didn't question him about it, or maybe she just never thought of it as an important question to ask, or maybe she didn't care. Maybe she accepted the fact that Kakashi fell in love with Sakura… But with all the questions running through his head, one look at Sakura and a particular thought screamed at him.

And it screamed…

_Oh, shit._

* * *

**Note:** During the past week, there had been a sudden plot that popped into my head. Therefore I had to start writing it. So here's a head up...  
**  
****There will be another KakaSaku story coming after this one.** I am in the process of putting my thoughts down and editing the first couple chapters. In my opinion, the one that's coming up is a lot better than this one. Maybe it's because of the fact that it has more of a plot, or maybe it's because I've been writing for longer now.

At any rate, I hope that you will look forward to it!

Thanks again!


	12. Courage: Part 3

**Catching Up – Chapter 12**

_Kurai-Hisaki_

**Disclaimer: Naruto belongs to Masashi Kishimoto.**

* * *

"Uhh…" was all Kakashi could get out as he awkwardly sfcratched the back of his head. He shifted his eye away from hers as he tried to think of the best way to answer her. Turning around to look at something else other than Sakura, he could feel her boring holes into the back of his head from the way she was staring at him.

For Sakura, it was an amusing sight. Never, had she ever seen the Copy Ninja so flustered and out-of-words to say. As much as she didn't want to, she had to admit that he was usually quick and smart with words.

After a while of muttering to himself, Kakashi turned back around.

"Get better first, and I'll tell you."

Sakura raised one eyebrow and shook her head gently while Kakashi made his way back to her side. Tucking a strand of hair behind her ear, he lowered his head down to her level until he was several inches away from her face. With a lower voice, he spoke again.

"How about I show you then, once you get better."

Sakura felt herself blush the shade of her hair when Kakashi leaned in close to tell her that. Looking into his eye, she felt her heart skip a couple beats faster. Why did he have to do that to tell her? He could have very well told her that from across the room. But being curious, she agreed – after all, maybe she can use this method to heal others better. It seemed that Kakashi never wounded her in any way to get his chakra in. This could be a good technique to learn.

Leaning back a little, she nodded her head. When Kakashi got her agreement, he stood back up and stared at her.

"I've got a few questions of my own to ask you, so you better prepare yourself when you get better."

She tilted her head slightly, and he continued as he patted her head.

"Now… get some rest. I'll talk to you again later."

Rest felt like a good idea to Sakura. The faster she gets better, the faster she can get some answers and the faster she can learn something new. Soon enough, darkness overtook her.

* * *

As Sakura got better, she realized that Kakashi was still frequently beside her. Whenever he was asleep and she woke up in the middle of the night, she'd try to mould his chakra with hers internally. She'd also try to move her head and limbs as much as possible to exercise them. Sure, the nurses had helped her during the day, but she felt that if she worked them more, the faster she'd heal. Tonight was one of those nights where Kakashi fell asleep before she did – which was odd; since he never slept before he made sure his teammates were safe. Maybe he didn't feel any danger in the hospital, or he was still very tired… or Sakura was good at faking that she's asleep. At any rate, she was glad that he was asleep.

Lifting her head and sitting up, she looked at the Copy Ninja that half-laid on her bed.

_That can't be comfortable._

Every night that he'd been with her, he had fallen asleep on his chair. Halfway through his sleep, he'd sprawl his top half over her blanket covered legs. Tonight was no exception. There were a couple of times where she wished that she had the strength to carry him so that he could sleep on the bed instead. Maybe it was just her caring nature that made her want to do that or perhaps she felt bad that he had to take care of her for so long.

She had never seen him so relaxed before. The last time she had woken up to this sight, he had still been exhausted and tired. Now, he looked perfectly at rest. Reaching out, she gently ran her hand through his hair. To her surprise, it was a lot softer than it looked. Without his hitai-ate covering half his face, his skin taunted Sakura. She traced her fingers over his eyebrows and slowly made her way down to his nose and cheeks. Moving to caress his ears, a thought popped up in her head.

_He had really soft skin…_

As soon as the thought had hit her, her mouth dropped and as if she thought of something forbidden, her eyes opened wide. She was touching Kakashi-sensei! Not in anywhere inappropriate, but people don't just caress each other's face like this when they had the relationship that they had.

_And just what kind of relationship is that?_

She couldn't answer that question herself – but she knew that she had really missed him when he suddenly disappeared and Sasuke took over. She found that suddenly, everywhere that she went… she was missing something. There was something about Kakashi… that had made her want to smile every time she saw him. There was something about him that made her want to laugh with him whenever he did something stupid for an elite ninja. She didn't know where he went for the years that she hasn't seen him, but it felt like the absence had made their relationship grow closer. But just what did closer mean?

They'd known each other for a long time, and after Kakashi had came back after those years, Sakura felt as if she never wanted him to leave again. After all, he had been here for her for most of her life. She wanted to do more of those things that they did – cook together, watch TV together, even cloud gazing together. Ever since her parents died, she hadn't done those things with anyone. She didn't go out, nor did she invite people over. She just never felt like she could be truly happy again, and whenever she saw other people being happy, it made her feel worse. She had been alone for the longest time.

Then there was Kakashi's company. It was somehow different than the company that others had often provided her with. Maybe it was because he knew about her situation, and others didn't. It wasn't as if she was saying her shishou was insensitive, but she just didn't have the time to make sure that she was okay. Though… Sakura _would _have to say that her shishou wasn't the best person to ask for comfort. Seeing Kakashi happy didn't make her feel sad at all. There was something about his smile that was real, yet so sad. It was strange, but seeing him smile made her want to see him happy – always. She wanted to be that one to give him happiness, even if it meant that she had to heal herself to do so. Perhaps it's because she knew that he had been through a lot – more than she had ever gone through, and he was still here. He was still here, smiling and trying to cheer her up. And after the company that Kakashi had provided her… she wasn't sure if she had wanted to be alone again… and she wasn't sure if she wanted him to be alone either. When he left, she had suddenly felt as if she was a bit lost. Maybe it was because he took care of her, regardless of whether she had asked or not – he had just seemed to slip unnoticed into her life. She just grew accustomed to him.

It felt like after she got sick, Kakashi took it upon himself to look after her. Perhaps he was guilty of leaving as well, but what confused her was why Kakashi had left all of a sudden just when she thought that things were going well between them – even if they were just friends.

_Friends…_

Friends sounded nice to her ears. It was better than teacher and student… but she couldn't help wonder if they could ever be more than friends.

_More than friends…?_

Still in deep thought, she moved her finger over his eyebrows and eyes.

Then an onyx eye opened.

Catching Sakura off guard, she tried to snatch her hands away from Kakashi's face as quickly as possible. His hand caught hers mid-air and Sakura's heart rate tripled. Looking at the silver haired ninja, she was speechless. She felt her face heat up once again in embarrassment of being caught touching his face. Closing his eyes again, he readjusted his head so that he was now resting on her thighs. Sakura stopped breathing.

_Was he still asleep? What was he doing? Was he dreaming?_

One of her questions was answered as his sleepy gaze rested on her eyes. He was definitely awake. Moving her hand so that it rested on his head again, he whispered, "That feels nice."

Snapping out of her stupor, she gave him a smile as she hesitantly continued to stroke her hand through his hair. Then she stupidly said, "You have nice hair."

He chuckled, "I never heard that from anyone before."

"There's a first for everything…"

"How are you feeling? Better?"

"Yeah…"

"Have you been secretly doing this each night when I'm sleeping?"

Being flustered, Sakura stopped moving her hand and quickly responded, "No! I mean, no… uh… this is the …first? I don't know what came over me, I'm sorry…"

With a knowing smile, he added, "I meant if you have been exercising your arms and moulding chakra every night that I've been asleep… "

Being embarrassed for mistaking his question, she sheepishly answered, "Oh! Yeah! I've been working hard to get better! I'm a lot better; can I know what the secret is now?"

Sitting up, Kakashi didn't answer her question, but rather asked his own.

"I want to ask you something first."

"What? But you promised!"

"I didn't say when."

"But…"

"Why didn't you take them?"

Being surprised, Sakura simply answered, "Take what?"

"Why didn't you take your medicine, Sakura."

"…"

How did she answer that one? She didn't have a reasonable reason for not taking the pills. She was sure that whichever reason she had, Kakashi probably wouldn't accept, so she sat there, staring at her lap - silent. She felt weight on the side of her bed and she looked up to see Kakashi reaching out to her. When she felt his hand stroke the side of her face to lift her head up, she felt that his gaze never faltered away from hers. Unexpectedly she just felt compelled to spill everything to her ex-sensei.

"I guess it started like this… I've always thought that I'd be strong enough to heal myself, I mean… I didn't get sick very often, and when I do, I usually _did _just get better in a day or two. I don't know why it was so different this time. Maybe it's because I was so emotionally exhausted…"

Kakashi continued to look at her, and she shakily started to tell the rest of her story.

"I…"

She closed her eyes and a lone tear made its way down the side of her cheek. She felt his thumb wipe it away and at the same time, she felt as if there was anyone who could understand her… it would be Hatake Kakashi, her sensei, teammate, friend and maybe more- than-friends. Snapping her watery eyes back up to him, she looked at his ever-patient face. She choked out her next sentence with sniffs in between.

"I… want-ed to *hic* see the-m… *sniff* I wanted to see my parents Kakashi-sensei!"

Resting her head on his shoulders, she let her tears fall. It was the first time that she had shed tears on this matter. It wasn't because she was insensitive, and it wasn't because she didn't miss her parents, but it had simply felt unreal to her. The more time that she spent with Kakashi, the more she realized that her parents were never coming back. With the care that Kakashi provided for her, she began to miss her parents more and more with each passing day. As the tears fell, she was ashamed. Strong kunoichis do not cry, but at the same time she was glad that she was finally able to shed tears for her parents. It felt nice to finally let out what she had kept inside for so long. It was like an outlet that had finally overflowed with her all the things that she had suppressed for so long – all flowing out at once. She felt as if she would finally be able to put this behind her and to move on her with her life. His arm encircled her shoulders as he embraced her and she accepted reality.

"Sakura… you don't always have to be strong."

"I… *hic* know… but… but I don't want to be weak. *sniff* I was always the weak one."

Putting his fingers under her chin, he lifted her head up.

"Sakura. You have grown. You and I both know that. You are no longer that little girl that I've first trained. We're equals now. You know that you're not weak, and no one ever thinks that of you. I know a lot of people even look up to you, depend on _you._ I think there were times when even _I _depended on you. Even the strongest ninjas need someone to depend on sometimes. You don't have to handle everything on your own. You _are_ strong."

"… I know."

Kakashi had a feeling that she had more to say, so he patiently sat there – awaiting whatever she had to say next.

"Sorry for ruining your shirt… I think I got snot all over it."

With a chuckle, he replied, "Its okay. That's what the washer is for… besides I'm sorry too."

"For what?"

"For not being there when you needed me, for leaving you to train Sasuke and Naruto, for not being here when your parents passed away…"

Sakura gently shook her head and smiled sadly.

"Kakashi-sensei… I want to tell you something…"

"Hmm?"

"Did you know… I took a chance."

"What do you mean?"

"When I didn't take my medicine… that wasn't all that I thought of. I wasn't just testing my own healing abilities… I was taking a chance. When you left me with Sasuke… I had thought that you had left me as well… I had always thought that you were the only one from team 7 that had never really left. Naruto and Sasuke both left Konoha to train, and you… even though you constantly had missions, I knew that you were still here. It had just seemed that no one really wanted to be with me at that time… You know how Sasuke is… he's a close friend, but I can't talk to him about this… especially when he had had it so much worse than me… I said to myself… if I could do without my medicine, and I die… then I'd be able to see my parents again. I guess… chance wanted me to live – huh?"

Trying her best to smile through her tears, she looked at the ceiling as she continued, "But you came back for me… I suppose it was a selfish thought…"

"Yes, that was."

Through a sad smile, Sakura whispered, "Sorry…"

"Hmm."

"It's okay. I forgive you." And through a real smile, Sakura brightened up a little and said, "Even the strongest ninja makes mistakes."

Then after a pause of silence, she continued, "ne… I saw them…"

Seeing Kakashi's eye widen, she guessed that he was surprised.

With a laugh, Sakura copied Kakashi's movement and stroked his face with her hand.

"I really wanted to be with them, my parents… but guess what they told me?"

"Hmm…?"

She giggled a little as she teased him. "They told me that someone here with silver hair was freaking out, and that if I didn't return, he'd die… I wonder who that would be… hmm?"

From Kakashi's lack of words to say, she would say that he was embarrassed. She could almost see the blush glowing on top of where his mask covered. Whether it was because of her first statement or the second one, she wasn't sure – but she was betting that it was the first one. This made Sakura giggle out loud.

"They didn't really say that, did they."

"Nope, but I had really wanted to see this copy ninja freaking out. It was probably just a feeling I had anyways."

With a chuckle, he replied, "I'm glad I amuse you…"

"Thank you…"

Sakura had said those two words with a lot more meaning than intended.

_Thank you, for taking care of me and spending time with me.  
__Thank you, for coming back to me.  
__Thank you, for worrying about me.  
__Thank you, for not looking down on me.  
__Thank you, for bringing me back._

"Hey… Kakashi-sens-..."

"Kakashi."

"Oh, right… Kakashi... Remember… that time when we were cloud gazing?"

"Hmm? What about it?"

"Remember… that bet?"

"What bet?"

"Hey! Don't cheap out! I won – rather… I kicked your ass! Therefore, you have to do something that I ask you to."

"Hmm… I somewhat remember something like that… why?"

"I would like to claim my prize now."

"Oh?"

"I would like you to tell me how you gave your chakra to me without cutting me – right now. No excuses, no waiting until I'm out of the hospital. I can't wait that long!"

"Impatient are we?"

"Yes! Can you show me now?"

Then he leaned in again, until he was inches away from her face. His voice sounded darker and huskier than usual. "Are you sure…" then with a slight smirk he added, "I'm not sure you can handle it."

"What?" Sakura narrowed her eyes at him. "You just said that I was strong!"

"Oh…" Slowly stroking his chin, he continued to sound as if he was saying something intelligent. "I'm sure strength has nothing to do with this."

Overflowing with curiosity now, she demanded her prize. "Show me."

Then it was as if someone had fast forwarded the world - or had really slowed it down. She couldn't tell. Her mind was blank and fuzzy and her hands gripped the blankets around her. This was _definitely_ in a whole new category of chakra transferring, but Sakura couldn't remember that at the moment. Kakashi had instantly pulled down his mask and claimed her mouth with his. All she felt was his soft lips around hers and his hot breath mingle with hers.

When his tongue touched the entrance of her lips, she gasped. Wasting no time, Sakura felt his tongue enter her mouth and she almost groaned out loud. It was then when she started to feel the heat in her mouth. But she couldn't process what it was as her body felt like it was warming up as well. All she felt was that Kakashi was pushing her down on the bed while he leaned over her and continued to kiss her.

People had always told her that kisses don't lie. Ino especially told her that kisses tell you a lot about the atmosphere and emotions that are being expressed. Each kiss portrayed the owner's feelings and with Sakura's case… it had started out with an innocent request, a neutral bet, an innocent kiss and then the kiss had heated up to something more. She had felt his more timid kisses – he was scared that she would just disappear. She had felt him testing to see if she would accept it, and when she did – he kissed her more passionately. She could feel his frustration for spending too much time in the hospital, for when she didn't wake up, for her not understanding why he was still here. She felt that the harder kisses were more of a punishment than a kiss, but just as the hard kisses came, the tender ones followed. When that kiss ended, Kakashi leaned back a bit to let her breathe. She felt her lips flushed and pulsing with heat.

She slightly panted as she lifted her emerald eyes to stare into his mismatched ones. He raised his hand to caress her cheek while he rested his forehead on hers.

He gently kissed her nose. And from this, she knew their relationship had just progressed to 'more than just friends'.

_Thank you, for loving me._

* * *

Can someone please tell me the proper spelling of the headbands that they have?  
I've gotten hiate-ate, and hitai-ate. I'm just getting confused. Does anyone know?

Corny… chapter ne? *haha*

I would say that this story has about one more chapter or so to go. Thanks for being with me as I am finishing up my first story!


	13. Catching Up

**Catching Up – Chapter 13 (Final Chapter)**

_Kurai-Hisaki_

"_Angel of Mercy… how did you move me… why am I on my feet again?" ~ Mercy, One Republic  
**Disclaimer: Naruto belongs to Masashi Kishimoto.  
**_

* * *

When the kiss had ended, Sakura had half a mind to remember what had started it in the first place. She faintly remembered her mouth heating up and that she had gasped in surprise.

After a moment of silence and after Sakura recovered from her shock, she exclaimed, "No way! You transferred chakra to me… by kissing me? I can't use that for my medical studies… that's no use for me at all! Kaka-…"

"Hmm?" Kakashi raised one eyebrow. "No one said anything about you being able to use it to heal people…"

Then she saw it. The thing that people died to see, the thing that team seven had betted on seeing. She had noticed when his eyebrow arched oh-so-perfectly.

His mask pooled around his neck as Sakura just stared shamelessly. It was everything that she had thought that she saw – weeks or possibly months ago when they were still back at her apartment. A tall nose, a strong jaw-line, thin lips – all in all, she would say that he looked good – no, a _lot _better than good. He had no flaws on his skin aside from the scar that ran down his sharingan. Sure, it was a _little_ exaggerated, but he was beautiful - cute even! Very typical right? But it's true! No wonder people fell in love with him when they saw his face. For a man who's in his mid to late-30s, he had a very boyish, yet masculine face. He didn't look like a day over 30. Hell, he could probably pass as if he was in the late-20s.

"Like what you see?"

Snapping out of her daze, Sakura slowly responded, "No…"

_Who am I kidding; I can stare at you all day…_

"I would have thought that you saw my face already… I mean… all the nights that I fell asleep; you didn't try to pull my mask down? I'm surprised."

"Hey! I'm not that indecent! That would be robbing you of your privacy while you were half dead to the world. Maybe when Naruto, Sasuke and I still had that bet going… but they don't know so… and the bet's over… but damn, that's almost like undressing someone when they're asleep… not that... _that_ has crossed my mind- I haven't thought about it, I swear…"

Kakashi chuckled, "Undressing me huh… that's something you don't hear out of your mouth everyday… and besides… if I had known that you haven't seen my face before, I would have given you a more dramatic strip of my mask."

Sakura just rolled her eyes.

"Kakashi… how did you do that without me knowing before?"

"Do what?"

"Transfer chakra to me, like _that,_ without me knowing."

With a sigh, Kakashi looked at the ceiling. Sakura could see that he was deciding if he should tell her something important. To help him make up his mind, Sakura reassured him.

"I promise I won't get mad."

Kakashi glanced at her suspiciously.

"Fine…" She laughed, "I promise I won't beat you through a wall."

Kakashi chuckled, "It's not that… I'm just not sure if you will take this the right way."

"Try me."

With another sigh, Kakashi told her. He told her of all the nights that they had spent back at her apartment, when she would fall asleep on his shoulder; he had wanted to kiss her. It was tempting. Having a beautiful woman be so close to him, and totally unconscious to the world, he had wanted to kiss her for the longest time. It was this time when he started to see her as a woman and not a girl that he used to teach – physically, emotionally and mentally. Through the times they spent together, he realized that she was so much more than just that head-over-heels in love girl that she used to be when she was a Genin. But he had always told himself that it would be inappropriate, with them having a student-teacher relationship and all.

Sakura was much too precious to him for him to just kiss her and if by chance that it ruined their relationship, he wouldn't be able to take it. It was strange that he was afraid of this happening in the first place, it would have never occurred to him if he was kissing any other woman. But then again, he couldn't just walk out the next morning like nothing had happened; he would have to work with her again one day or they would meet when he needed treatment. He couldn't avoid her either even if he tried. It wasn't easy to stay away from something that attracted you, however strange the attraction may be. She was a kid that he had looked after ever since she was 12 and was a comrade that he had watched growing into a beautiful and strong woman. She wasn't just someone who he can kiss, have sex with, then walk out of their life the next day. He was sure that his heart couldn't take it anyways. No, she was more than that.

Then there was one night where Sakura, who had smelt deliciously sweeter than normal, had fallen asleep dangerously close to him. With her head on his chest and hands gently resting on his upper thigh, he had finally given into temptation. Her lips tauntingly invited his and he kissed her. He had tried to justify his actions by thinking that he was helping her heal faster by giving her chakra - at least then if Sakura decided to hate him, he could justify himself and perhaps she wouldn't castrate him then ignore him for the rest of his life. It was a lame excuse, he knew that, but it was just his back up plan. He was glad that he never had to put it into use. So that was precisely what he did, instead of just kissing her, he gave her a little bit of chakra each time.

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have done it, but I don't know why I did. I had no rights to, and I'm…"

Sakura silenced him by resting her finger on his lips. With a gentle shake of her head, she smiled at him.

"Now _you're_ rambling. Don't worry… I'm glad you did what you did… I wouldn't be here if you hadn't done so… so… Thank You…"

"You're not mad." It was funny how Kakashi just said it as a statement rather than a question.

"Why would I be? Kakashi… you saved my life. As much as I had wanted to be with my parents… it was you who brought me back. When they left, I didn't accept the reality and the fact that they weren't coming back. I threw myself into work, worked myself until I couldn't think of anything else… I worked until all I did was work, eat and sleep. I didn't have time for fun, or time to go out. You made me realize that there are people here who still care for me. Thank you."

Teasing Kakashi a little bit, she continued, "You also made me realize that there are people who can't live without me."

Kakashi blinked, "What?"

"A kiss never lies."

Kakashi smiled at her and Sakura felt like melting. He really did have the sweetest smile. Pulling his mask back up, she said, "Better keep that covered, wouldn't want people melting all over the place."

In response, Kakashi laughed at her like he hasn't laughed in weeks. In reality, he hasn't. He had been so worried that he hadn't smiled at all for the past month. It sounded strange in Sakura's ears as she had never heard him laugh like that before – she had to admit that his laughter was more than welcomed though.

When he finally stopped, he smiled, hugged her close to him and whispered, "Sakura…"

Then there was a pause. Sakura knew that he was uncomfortable with affection so she continued his train of thought, "I know, I love you too."

"No… you don't understand – the feelings that I felt when I thought that I was going to lose you. When I went on that mission while you were sick, I had this feeling that when I got back… something horrible was going to happen… and it did. I'm so sorry for leaving you. I'm not saying Sasuke is a bad friend, but I would have felt more secure if it was me who was there… but I was also confused. I'm sorry."

Sakura knew that it was hard for Kakashi to show emotions and for him to talk more than a few words at once, was rare. She knew exactly what he was confused about – their relationship and his feelings. From the times that she met him, she never recalled him being serious about any woman. She smiled a bit when she remembered team 7 betting if he was gay or not. For being such a pervert, she knew that he wasn't, but Naruto thought otherwise. She was glad that he was opening up to her about his feelings.

"Thank you."

Kakashi raised an eyebrow.

"… for telling me all that. But you don't have to be sorry… really… I'm glad this all happened."

When Sakura saw that Kakashi still had the apologetic look on his face, she smiled.

"If you keep on having that look on your face… I'm really going to beat you through a wall."

Kakashi just returned her statement with a crinkle in his eye.

She meant what she said – after all… if this didn't happen, she never would have gotten close to Kakashi and in return, he would have never loved her. They would have never started this relationship. All in all, she was grateful for everything that has happened. She was thankful that Kakashi came back when he did. At the start, everything had felt so difficult for her, yet now… everything was falling into place.

* * *

The sun was shining when she stepped foot out of the place that had confined her for so long. There was not a cloud that could be seen in the spacious blue sky. Crisp, fresh air filled her lungs as she took a huge breath.

_This is what the sun and good weather should be for… enjoyment. I've missed out on this for so long._

"SAAAKUUURAAA-CHAAAN!!"

Smiling to herself, Sakura swung around to see Naruto running at her in full speed. She never thought that she would be the one to admit this but it was great to hear something loud and something _so 'Naruto'_ for a change. Being in the hospital drove her insane, especially when it was so silent. Now she knew why Kakashi hated being a patient so much. It was weird that she never realized it before – especially when she worked there so much. She made a mental note to herself to give the patients an option of playing music in their rooms.

She felt the wind get knocked out of her when Naruto finally crashed into her. He picked her up from where she was and started to hug her while swinging her.

"Naruto! I can't breathe! Stop!"

Nausea hit her when he started swinging her in circles. She felt like puking.

"NA-RU…TO! ST-OP! I'm go-ing to p-u-ke, Stop- Kaka-sen-sei! He-lp!"

Naruto didn't stop, nor did Kakashi try to help her. If anything Naruto hugged harder and tears starting to stream down his face as he cried, "'SAKUUURA-CHAN!! I MISSED YOU!!"

"KAKASHI!"

Kakashi raised one eyebrow again, picked Naruto up and set the kyuubi container on his feet on the other side of him – away from Sakura. Needless to say, Kakashi received a death glare from Sakura.

"I'm going home." Sakura turned and started to walk away from the hospital entrance.

The 2 males looked at each other. Naruto had a confused look on his face while Kakashi's expression never changed. The jounin simply patted Naruto on the shoulder, shrugged and said, "PMS."

"I HEARD THAT!"

With a chuckle, Kakashi bided Naruto farewell and followed Sakura.

"So… why didn't you help me? I was going to hurl you know."

"I know."

Sakura stopped and glared at him again.

"So why?"

Sakura had to admit that she was a little pissed off. She knew that Kakashi had never been one to show affections, much less in public. She knew that Kakashi has never been in love or openly dated someone before, but she didn't know that he was going to be so cold towards her. Did he have some personality disorder where he was cold to people he loved – just like how boys in kindergarten would bully the girl that they liked? Looking over to the Copy-Ninja, she felt silly for thinking that. He was a grown man, so why?

Nevertheless, she started to think and retrace the things she said. Her eyes widened when she realized.

"You didn't help me and I almost threw up because I called you sensei?"

Kakashi just kept on walking.

"You're mean!! Kakashi_-sensei!_"

She didn't really mean it of course. She knew that he always had a weird way of teaching things. In the future, if she called him 'sensei' again, she would remember today - the day when he was more than just a sensei, and more than a teammate and friend – and the day where she almost puked in front of her new lover. However, she was still slightly sad that he would go to this extreme to prove a point. She was confused when she heard him laugh quietly.

"I think you're mistaken. I simply just thought that you missed Naruto as much as he missed you. A little hug never hurt anyone."

"… Little? … He may be little to you, but as much as I love Naruto and his hugs, I feel like his hugs crush me sometimes. He's grown too much over the years. I can almost feel my spine snap when he towers over me." With a smile, Sakura continued, "He doesn't know his own strength."

"It was also hard to hear you when you were laughing while you were screaming help."

Sakura blushed, "I knew I gave you too much credit for your teaching methods."

Kakashi raised one eyebrow. "Teaching methods?"

"Nevermind."

After a moment of silence, Sakura apologized for thinking that Kakashi was cold. It was a simple misunderstanding and she forgot that he had slow reflexes when it came to things outside of a battle. She felt bad for being ill-tempered towards him – it was something that she really had to fix. Tsunade's short temper was not a good thing to pick up on. How could she forget with all the times that she had to wait for him? It explains a lot – from not picking Naruto off of her to not answering when she thought he didn't help her because she called him 'sensei'.

"I'm not cold… I just have a different way of thinking."

Sakura nodded in agreement, knowing all too well just how different Kakashi was.

"You and I both know that I've never been good at relationships, and as much as I would love to be with you… I'm going to ask that you have to be patient with me…"

Sakura nodded again.

"However hard that may be."

Sakura gave a little scowl and lightly swung a punch at him.

"And I'm going to have to ask that you don't physically abuse me. I'd like to be black-and-blue free."

"I'm sorry, I can't do that. It's a …"

"I was joking."

Sakura raised one eyebrow and pretended to look astonished. "The famous Hatake Kakashi can … _joke?_"

"Yes… didn't you promise to drop the 'sensei' anyways?"

"Sure did, but you know it's a habit…" and with a suggestive look, Sakura added, "Unless… you _want_ me to call you 'sensei'?"

Kakashi froze as Icha Icha scenarios played like a movie in his head. Sakura laughed out loud as they continued to walk. As she reached her front door, a thought that hadn't crossed Sakura's mind before hit her.

It felt nice to walk home with someone, to have someone here with her and to have a nice conversation with. She wouldn't mind if this happened everyday. She smiled when she looked up at Kakashi. It seemed that he was also having similar thoughts. Before she stuck her key in the lock, she turned and faced Kakashi. Looking up through her lashes, she asked, "Would you like to come in?"

Casually resting his hand on her lower back, he gave a lopsided grin behind his mask. "How can I resist an offer like that?"

With a smile, Sakura opened the door and they made their way in. Upon turning around to look at her apartment, she froze. Then she looked at Kakashi and saw that he was avoiding her gaze.

"You flipped _my_ apartment…_ upside-down… _just to see if I was taking my pills!?"

Kakashi could only scratch the back of his head as he took a step back.

"KAKASHIIII!!!"

Watching the pink-haired ninja advance towards him, he knew that his life was starting to get very interesting.

* * *

They had both missed out a lot on each other's lives and had a lot of catching up to do. He understood that they were 2 very different people; nevertheless, they balanced each other out. She had the passion and overflowing emotions that he didn't. She made decisions rashly and based on her emotions while he was calm and made level-headed decisions. Changes would have to be made. When Sakura had pounced on top of him, he knew that his life would never be the same and he accepted it with open arms.

He had never thought that he would be able to care about anything besides his duties or to love again, but here he was. He had never thought about ever showing any more emotions, but again he was proven wrong. Sakura had 180 degrees flipped his life around, a life that he didn't think he would be able to experience again - a life of companionship, promise and love. For him, life had just been 'restarted', and he couldn't be happier.

For Sakura, her emotions had always been her drive and motivation to advance in life. She had thought about ending it all, but for once… she was not the one who had to ask the other, not to leave. She was glad that she was so easily persuaded or that Kakashi was a good persuader. She couldn't explain why she gave in to her usual stubbornness this time, but she didn't think about it too much. She was here now, and the happiness she felt couldn't be replaced with anything else.

Who would have thought that out of everyone she knew… she would have ended up with Hatake Kakashi? She was sure that no one had seen it coming. When she was young, she had thought of Kakashi as the most annoying man she knew. Sure, she knew that he was strong but she had thought that he had no sense of responsibility. To her back then, he wasn't serious about anything he did and he seemed to just drift through life while she had to work and study so hard to get where she was. Oh, how wrong had she been…

As she got to know him, she found out his past and had regretted thinking that he wasn't serious about anything. She also discovered that having no sense of responsibility was just a front that he put on. On the outside, he seemed like he didn't care about anything but even though he looked like he lacked emotions, Sakura found out that he felt more than most people. Whenever she found him standing in front of the memorial, he would be expressionless, but she could feel him thinking and reflecting internally. He didn't show this either, but his happiness was contagious. He didn't laugh like crazy like Naruto did, nor did he skip down the street… For Sakura, a simple chuckle was all that was needed to make her feel warm inside.

Despite knowing him for so long, there was a lot that she didn't know about him. For once, she was patient in waiting for him. She decided that she will wait to learn more about him; after all, he was already opening up to her. She couldn't figure out if this relationship was going too fast or if it was too good to be true, but she didn't overanalyze it.

Yes, they had a lot of catching up to do and they intended to make up for every bit of lost time. When Sakura laughed and threw her arms around Kakashi's neck, he had made up his mind.

With a kiss, he decided that the catching up started now.

* * *

_**The End**_

* * *

Cheesy-ness to the max! Was the reason for the kiss too predictable? Sorry for the long wait, I just started school/work again and things have been crazy (especially during first year orientation week). Sorry for the quick ending, but I'm not sure where the story can go anymore – so I am starting a new one. Hopefully it will be better.

Please check out **Breathe** when you have time.

Here's a quick summary of it, (it's still under construction): Due to unexpected circumstances, Sakura has to live at Kakashi's apartment for a while. What could possibly happen? And just how long will she or can she stand to live at his place? [KakaSaku]

Take note that the rating has been changed back to T instead of M (because someone said T is more suitable, and at first it was only rated M to be safe because I wasn't sure where I was going with it). Not that this is saying much because it's the end of the story already, so... sorry if this disappointed any of you (if you were looking for anything 'M' material =P).

**Thanks again to all my readers. I really wouldn't have found the motivation to write without you guys and without reading your reviews – Thank you so much!**


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